The Cherry Blossom Who Actually Blossomed
by MarvelousN16
Summary: Sakura gets the opportunity to grow from weak to strong. Watch as she makes herself known to the ninja world. SakuraCentric, No Naruto, OP Sakura don't like then don't read.
1. Chapter 1

Sakura Haruno was crying her heart out in front of her burnt down home. It had been the worst few months in her entire life. First she gets put on a team with her childhood crush Sasuke. Whenever she builds up the confidence to talk to him. He instantly shuts her down and calls her annoying. It got so bad that her team had gotten a mission to wave country. Sasuke constantly told her she was worthless, would never amount to nothing and that she would be forever annoying. Kakashi her jounin sensei did not even stick up for her.

He just looked like couldn't care to bother with her. All he would do is send to Sasuke to be nice while telling Sakura she should work on herself so she wouldn't be bothering everybody. Then Sai, her other teammate rarely talks. When he does, he just calls her the stupid nickname he gave her _ugly. _Sai also sometimes join Sasuke when he belittles her.

Sakura hated being treated this way. Whenever she tried to stand up for herself. Kakashi blatantly ignores her. Sasuke threatens to burn her to ashes with his jutsu. Sai just agrees with whatever Sasuke says.

The insults and treatment from her team started from day 1. But after wave, Sakura just couldn't take it anymore. Add to the fact that her parents have been distant with her lately. Which was eating her up. So she finally gets the courage to ask them about it on her way home. She soon finds out that she won't be able to get that chance. As he house was burning down the pinkette got home.

Sakura couldn't believe that no one was bothering to come help put the fire out. She didn't know where the ninjas patrolling the village were. Sakura just sat that and watched the fire burn down her home. Once it died down, she instantly ran into what was left of her home. Sakura was able to discover her parents in their room. Only to see that they were dead. Their burns were so bad that her parents were barely recognizable.

She sat there for 10mins just staring at her deceased parents. Sakura's mind was going through everything that had happened to her recently. All of her negative pent up emotions were finally breaking through. Before she broke down, her body simply walked back outside. Sat in front of her door. The pinkette cried her heart out.

She was heartbroken, depressed, angry and tired. Sakura couldn't help but to just sob loudly. Not caring who heard her. This would go on for 10mins before she felt someone touch her shoulder.

Sakura looked up with tears in her eyes. Imagine her surprise when she sees Kushina Uzumaki next to her. The wife of the deceased fourth hokage. She was supposed to be a mother but her son died the same day as Minato.

Kushina was looking at Sakura with worry in her eyes but she had a smile on her face showing.

"Hey there dear, care to tell me what's wrong?" Kushina asked softly.

Sakura tried to answer her. However more tears just came flooding as her voice got choked up. She couldn't get a word out to explain what was going on.

Kushina then asked. "How about I take you to my home? It's better than staying out here crying by yourself. Maybe once you calm down you can explain what's happened."

The pinkette could do nothing but nod slowly. Kushina smiled at her then took her hand. Kushina shunshined them to her home.

It was an instant before they appeared in Kushina's house. Sakura was trying to stop crying. She really wanted to. Unfortunately she couldn't because she was just so sad.

Kushina guided her over to a couch in the living room. The red head sat down while gently trying to get Sakura to sit. Sakura obeyed seeing as she was in front of a legendary kunoichi. It was odd just seeing the one person you look up to and also have a small crush on appears out of nowhere to help you.

"Mind telling me your name sweetie?" Kushina asked her in a comforting tone.

Sakura finally got herself to stop crying as much so she could talk. Some tears still dripped from her eyes. She took a deep breath before saying. "Sakura, Sakura Haruno." In a upset tone.

Kushina smiled. "Good, it's nice to meet you Sakura-chan. I'm Kushina Uzumaki, you may or may not have heard of me." She voiced a bit sheepishly.

The pinkette couldn't help but giggle a bit. "Of course I know you Kushina-sama. You're a living legend to all us upcoming kunoichi. Well I don't know about all since some girls aspire to be like Tsunade-sama. But you are truly what I envisioned as a kunoichi growing up. But I kinda became the exact opposite.." Sakura looked away embarrassingly.

The red head looked curious to know more. However right now that was not she brought Sakura here for. "That's flattering to hear Sakura-chan. Please just call me Kushina or Kushina-chan. I'm really not for all the honorifics shit." Kushina waved off. "Can you tell me what were you crying about?"

Whatever slight change in Sakura mood that had been there disappeared. She looked ready to sob her heart out again. Kushina winced slightly seeing she might've pushed it too early.

"You don't have to if you don't want to! Sorry I just wanted to help! Didn't mean to make you cry again." Kushina freaked out.

"N-No it's fine, I'll tel you since it's probably best talking it out rather than keeping all of my problems inside." Sakura reassured her in a shaky tone. Then she took another deep breath to get herself to calm down somewhat.

"My life is a complete hell right now. My team treats me like I don't matter. I'm a disgrace to kunoichi's all around. I lost my best friend over some guy who isn't what I thought he was. My parents just died in a burning house 10mins or so before you found me. Even before they died they were growing distant towards me." Sakura said to Kushina.

Kushina's eyes widened. "Oh kami, I'm so sorry to hear that Sakura." She pulled the pinkette into a warm embrace. Sakura just cried in Kushina's chest while Kushina said comforting words to her.

Sakura eventually cried herself to sleep though she ended up hugging Kushina back at some point during her crying. The red head had picked her up gently to not wake her up. Then took Sakura to one of her guest rooms. Kushina tucked Sakura in and left the room.

She went into the kitchen to get a snack. That's when Kurama, the nine tailed fox appeared in a miniature form.

"That kid sure has some shitty luck." Kurama said.

Almost 14 years ago a lot of shit happened. Kushina was supposed to give birth to her son named Naruto. The seal of a female jinchuuriki weakens greatly though child birth. Also Kurama and Kushina were not real friendly towards on another at that time. Kurama didn't appeared the way he was contained. He could hardly moved the way by how tight the chains were that were holding him. Kushina never wanted to really associate with Kurama at all. All she did was take what chakra she could from him by force. Once she learned how to draw his chakra. But then some guy proclaiming with a sharingan appeared. Held Naruto hostage, kidnapped Kushina, released Kurama from the seal to ensnare him in a genjutsu to destroy konoha and fought against Minato. Eventually Minato was able to force him to retreat.

Then the blond hokage had the _greatest _idea to use to shiki fujin to seal Kurama back into Kushina. The red head wanted to beat Minato's head in for using this forbidden jutsu to reseal Kurama back inside her. However she didn't get the chance when Minato informed her that Naruto suddenly stopped breathing once Minato was able to save him from that explosion. When Minato checked his pulse. He found out that Naruto had no pulse. So he quickly hiraishined him to the hospital to see if they could save him.

Kushina world felt like it had shattered after learning that. Using the remainder of his time. Minato comforted him wife, he told her he wanted her to continue to live her life even without him or Naruto being there with her. He didn't want her to wallow their grief of their deaths for the rest of her life. The last thing Kushina saw was Minato kissing her saying goodbye before dying. Soon afterward Kushina passed out due to strenuous strain of her chakra could. From having a bijuu extracted from you to having it real sealed not long afterwards can cause that.

Kushina didn't wake her until 5 days after the attack. Tsunade was the first one she saw when she woke up. Tsunade hugged her then cried saying how sorry she was that she couldn't save Naruto. From that point on Kushina was depressed for a whole year. She kept to mainly herself and stayed a retired shinobi. She was grieving over the loss of her son and husband. But she was still pissed at Minato for using the seal he used. He used the eight trigrams seal. Which means that her chakra would be merging with Kurama's. She didn't want that. However during that year, the two met face to face. Had a long heated argument. Then came to an agreement to be cordial with one another. As long as Kurama didn't have to be sealed like previously then it didn't matter to him.

During the years the two become important to one another at some point. Now Kurama was her familiar in battle when needed. But back to the point.

Kushina shrugged. "I don't know, can't be all that shitty if all that led her to me."

Kurama looked slightly intrigued at her response. He knew Kushina well enough to know that she was planning something.

"What are you up to Kushina?" He asked in amusement.

Kushina grinned at her familiar. "I want to help her. I want to hear more of her story. I didn't recognize her face. But I recognized her name when she told me. I saw her records when the newly fresh genin were announced. Sakura's physical skills are lacking greatly. But she has a very intelligent mind. Second by just a small margin to Shikaku's son Shikamaru. She called herself a disgrace to kunoichi's everywhere. That means she's either already tried or is willing to change. I want to know who her jounin instructor is. They have to know about the girl's intelligence. She could turn out to be something incredible if she gets the right person to guide her along the way. And if her chakra control is at the percentile where I believe it could be at. She could turn out to be a very promising shinobi."

Kurama was right. He knew she had something planned. "I see, well hopefully she catches a break from her misfortune." He voiced.

Kushina sighed. "I do feel terrible about her parents. If my memory serves me correct. She may be that lady Mebuki Haruno's daughter. Since she's the only other Haruno I've seen in the village. I know she was married too. Sakura being their daughter would be too far off I just hope she can learn to move on in life."

Kurama agreed although he had another thing on his mind. "Did you ever see a picture of her husband?"

The red head looked confused at his question. But she thought about an answer. "Uhh actually I think so. I only met Mebuki three times. To be honest she was kinda a bitch but I've dealt with worst. But yeah I do remember seeing a picture of him and her, why?" She asked.

"Did either one of them have pink hair" Kurama asked.

"No...?" Kushina answered still not catching on.

"How the hell did she get pink hair?! Seriously is that natural?" Kurama yelled but not loud enough to wake up Sakura.

Kushina face palmed herself. "Baka-fox does that really matters? Besides I'm willing to bet that it is since her name is Sakura. Cherry blossoms are pink so it would only make sense if she was naturally born with that color." Then the red head paused for a moment when a realization hit her. "Oh my god that so cute! Yeah it's official I'm definitely not letting her go." Kushina gleefully said.

Kurama snorted. "Of course your simple minded ass would point that out." He mused.

3 kunai were quickly thrown at the fox. Kurama barely dodged them in time. He looked to see that sweet yet very deceiving smile that promised pain. This was one of the only times Kurama felt fear. When Kushina makes that face, it usually doesn't turn out to well to the receiving end of the smile. Quickly he disappeared back into the seal.

Kushina face returned to a normal small grin. "Baka-furball." She said to herself.

Afterwards, Kushina went to take a shower then red a book about seals until she fell asleep for the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Morning came around, the sun beaming through the window in Sakura's room. It didn't take long for it to wake up the sleeping rosette. Sakura eyes were scrunched up because of the sun. Once she sat up slowly to rub them. Her vision was clear.

That's when she looked around the room she was in. She didn't recognize it at all. But then she remembered what all transpired last night. So let some tears fall down her eyes again remembering her parents were dead. The realization hit Sakura hard.

After 10mins of crying, she told herself that's what's done is done. Crying about it won't solve anything. "Seriously I can't cry all day. Maybe sometime during the day but not all day." She told herself.

Then she remembered seeing Kushina. "Oh yeah I did meet her yesterday. She used that jutsu Kakashi-sen-." She caught herself. No Sakura knew he didn't deserve to be called her sensei after the way he's treated her.

"_Kakashi" _Sakura spat out like his name was a sour lemon. "That jutsu he uses. Kushina-chan used it to bring me to her house."

Suddenly a strong smell of food was sent her way. Sakura stood up and walked to the kitchen. She noticed walking through the hallway how cozy and welcoming it feels.

In the kitchen, the pinkette saw Kushina was finishing cooking breakfast. "Ohayo Kushina-chan." She greeted the red head with a genuine smile.

"Morning Sakura-chan, how did you sleep?" Kushina asked.

"Better than I have in the last few days." Sakura replied.

"That's good to know!" Kushina voiced happily.

She brought a plate of food to Sakura. They ate breakfast while doing some light chatting. When they were done. Kushina asked Sakura to come to her room with her.

Sakura was confused but she nodded in agreement.

After Kushina washed the dishes. She led Sakura to her room. When Sakura saw Kushina room. Clothes were all over the floor. Besides that, the room looked much like a master bed room. Kushina sat on her bed, patted the spot next to her for Sakura to sit down. The pinkette obliged.

"Sorry about the clothes. My room is usually this messy since I tend to leave my clothes on the floor whenever I change." Kushina said while rubbing the back of her head.

Sakura smiled slightly. "No it's fine, honestly for some reason it makes me feel even more comfortable." She explained.

"Good! Now Sakura-chan, do you feel comfortable talking to me about some things from last night? We don't have to talk about your parents if you don't want to." Kushina asked her in a soft tone.

"I'd rather not cry again from talking about my parents right now. But I could talk to you about everything else." Sakura sighed.

The red head put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "That's fine, so why don't you start explaining what you meant by you're a disgrace to kunoichi everywhere?"

Sakura expression became an irritable one. "I was so caught up into trying to get a boy in my class to notice me. That I slacked off in my training while I was in the academy. So I'm lacking in the physical department. I forced myself to go on diets all because I heard my former crush likes skinny girls. I wasted years chasing around a boy who turned on was nothing more than an revenge obsessed asshole. I looked up to you when I was growing up. I still do so I felt like I was disappointing myself and making a bad name for serious kunoichi's. That's why I said that."

Kushina listened to the explanation. "Hmm well I can't say that I haven't seen girls like that before. They really pissed me off when I was growing up. So are you willing to change that?" She asked curiously.

"I already have, during my first c-rank my team encountered a few missing nins. One of them being Zabuza Momochi, demon of the mist. First we were almost ambushed by the demon brother's. But Sasuke and Sai was able to handle it. While Kakashi appeared afterwards praising them." Sakura explained.

"Sasuke and Sai?" Kushina questioned.

"My teammates are Sasuke Uchiha and Sai. Jounin instructor is Kakashi Hatake." The pinkette replied with some anger in her tone. That made Kushina raise an eyebrow.

"Not long after we encountered Zabuza. While Kakashi was fighting him. He ended up getting caught in a water prison. Sasuke and Sai were able to work together to free them. That's when I truly realized that all I'm doing is taking up space. How can I be a shinobi if I can't even contribute to our team. I could hardly protect the client if someone was to attack me. Once I realized that a part of me was hating myself for not trying to become a great kunoichi. I swore to myself that I would no longer take being a shinobi as if it was a game. So I asked Kakashi to help me train. He did after he recovered somewhat from chakra exhaustion. But he only showed us tree walking. I have the best chakra control along with the smallest reserves. So I was able to make it to the top with ease. That was the last thing Kakashi taught me. He sent me off to go help our clients daughter in the kitchen. While he watches the other two progress. I caught him giving them extra training multiple times. I asked over and over trying to tell Kakashi I wanted to change. He just brushed it off and said I was better off being out of the way. Sai didn't care what I did. Sasuke just berated me every time saying I would never amount to anything no matter how hard I tried." Sakura told Kushina with more frustration in her voice.

"So you learned tree walking during a B-rank mission?" Kushina couldn't believe what she had heard.

"No it was A-rank because our client lied about protecting him from ninja. Sasuke wanted to continue the mission. Sai does whatever Sasuke does. Kakashi just agreed without no one asking about my opinion. We weren't trained for that level of difficulty. Kakashi hardly trained us as it is. All we do is teamwork exercises." Sakura shared her disbelief.

Sakura felt the air get cold as she saw red aura radiating off of Kushina. "U-Uh Kushina are you-"

"That fucking prick! Where the hell does he get off in treating his student this way?! He knows that favoritism isn't allowed. Then he let a genin, a fucking genin decide if they were going to continue a mission way out of their league! Oh just wait until I see that cocky silver haired bastard. I'll teach him a lesson he won't ever forget." Kushina ranted in anger.

Sakura was shocked. Someone was angry for her.

Kushina eyes were narrowed dangerously. She lessened their narrowness to ask Sakura a question. "Sakura do you have any other family in konoha?"

Sakura shook her head side to side. "No I've only met my grandma three times before she died. My aunt I met several times but we never got along. Other than that, the rest of my dad's family is unknown to me. Mom's side is the same way. No one in either of my families except my parents has ever lived in konoha. Only my aunt and grandma ever visited us."

"I see, well since your house is gone. How would you like to live here with me from now on?" Kushina offered with a smile.

The pinkette could not believe her ears. Did Kushina Uzumaki just offer her a place to stay? What kind of genjutsu was she stuck in?

"I-I I don't want to i-intrude!" Sakura replied.

Kushina waved her off. "You won't be, only I live here anyways. Genma does come over and stay sometimes. My other friends come over a couple times a week too. Trust me it'll be refreshing for me to have someone live with me. Especially someone who I see has potential that's waiting to be tapped into. Also I'm not taking no for an answer Sa-ku-ra-chan." She voiced the last part teasingly.

Sakura wanted to retorted but just gave it up. She had no reason at all to deny this offer. It wasn't like she had anywhere to go. Plus how often is it that you get a legendary shinobi who is actually WILLING to teach you?

So she just sighed. "Alright you win Kushina-chan." Sakura said with a small smile.

Kushina grinned. "Great! But Sakura I hope you know that I'm a jinchuuriki."

Sakura wasn't expecting to hear that. "I remember reading a book about them. Wait so if they are demon containers. Does that mean you're the jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox who attacked our village? I heard that the fourth hokage defeated it. But a mere human cannot kill a beast of that caliber no matter how hard they try. So sealing it away is the most logical explanation." The bookworm wondered.

Kushina was grinning ever harder than before. "Wow most kids in your generation don't even know half of what you just said. You sure are a bookworm Sakura. I'm sure you will be able to use that brilliant mind of yours to achieve great things. After all a ninja needs more than skills to survive."

Sakura blushed hearing the small praise. It felt good hearing someone compliment your intelligence. "D-Do you really think I could?" She nervously asked.

"Hell yeah I do sweetie. Have some faith in yourself. You have a weapon that is considered a ninja's greatest weapon Sakura. Don't think so lightly of yourself. You can become anything you want if you set your mind to it." Kushina encouraged.

Sakura took those words to heart. She wanted to believe she could become strong. To protect herself, her comrades and those in need. Sakura realized that it was not too late for her to change if Kushina Uzumaki herself was encouraging her.

"Ok then, from this day forward. I will strive to become stronger. I want my name to be heard throughout the world. I no longer want to be a fan girl. I want to be a strong shinobi." Sakura said with determination.

Kushina smiled and patted her on the back. "That's the spirit Sakura! Ok Kurama you can come out now."

Sakura was confused until a small orange nine tailed fox appeared. For some unexplainable reason Sakura was not frightened by the fox.

"Hello little human, are you here to offer me your SOUL?!" Kurama questioned as he raised his chakra.

The fox was quickly punched on top of the head. He rubbed his aching head. "Ow! What was that for?!" Kurama asked.

"That's for trying to scare Sakura and using your chakra around a girl who isn't used to how POTENT IT IS YOU DUMBASS!" Kushina yelled at her familiar.

Kurama winced a bit. "Ok ok sorry I was just trying to have some fun with the kit. It's not everyday I get to try to scare a kid like her."

Kushina rolled her eyes. "Whatever furball."

Kurama's eye twitched. "I told you not to call me that you witch!" He roared.

Kushina would've quickly retorted if Sakura hadn't started petting Kurama's fur.

"Kawaii mr. fox your fur is so pretty and soft. It makes me want to sleep on you!" Sakura said happily.

Kurama looked at Kushina who looked just as confused as him. So he snorted then said. "Heh I'm glad you like it kit. I'll let you play with it any time you want. Also call me Kurama. It's nice to meet you little Sakura."

"Nice to meet you too Kurama. Although I assumed you would be much much bigger thsn this. Also expected to feel more bloodlust too." Sakura mused.

"This is not my actual size kit. This is my smallest form. Kushina here said that this is the perfect size for me for whenever I'm not inside her seal. Apparently it makes me less intimidating for her friends who come around." Kurami answered.

"Yeah cause having a giant fox laying around sure won't cause havoc around the village. I rather not give the old man a heart attack before his time comes. Plus you know this is the most convenient size for you. People don't freak out when they see you walking next to me." Kushina voiced.

"Don't they see his tails?" Sakura asked.

"Nope he hides all of them except for one. But Sakura tell me how do you feel about your team?" Kushina questioned.

"They could all go to hell for all I care. I just wish I didn't have to be on the same team as them." Sakura replied.

Kushina smirked. "Stay right here, I'm gonna go see if I can do something about that." Right after she disappeared in a shunshin.

Sakura looked confused, she looked over at Kurama.

"She's going to see the hokage and inform him about your situation. Don't worry that old man is too scared of Kushina to ever deny her what she wants." Kurama informed her.

"Wait isn't the hokage the strongest in the village? Why would he be scared of Kushina-chan." The rosette asked.

Kurama snickered. "While it is true that a kage is supposed to be the strongest in their villages. That old man is not on the same level as Kushina. Never have been and never will be. He and Kushina have a good relationship. She sees him as a grandfather. But he is too afraid to make her angry. Kushina can get real violent when she wants to."

"Hmm that's interesting. To think that our actually kage is not the strongest in our village." Sakura voiced.

"Don't be that surprised kit. There is always somebody in the world who is stronger than you. This applies to everyone. Me personally I don't respect that old man too much." The fox said.

"How come?" Sakura asked.

"He lets his old teammates walk all over him. Ask Kushina, she will tell you what I mean." He answered.

In the office of the hokage. Kushina was standing in front of the god of shinobi himself.

"So Sakura Haruno's parents died in a burning house? That's very unfortunate I do hope she can move on with her life. But not only are you taking her in. You want me to let you take control over her training. Because apparently Kakashi hasn't been focusing on all of his students." Sarutobi Hiruzen questioned his surrogate grand daughter.

"Yes I do jiji, I know you saw her records from the academy. A girl with her intelligence is far too promising to not help. Plus I see a bit of myself in her eyes." Kushina said.

"You see right, I did see them. I was disappointed in her physical stats. But she does have that mind of hers. Kakashi recently reported that he thinks her chakra control percentile is in the 96th. Even Tsunade doesn't have that level of control. Still I can't just give you Kakashi's student without his agreement." Hiruzen replied.

"Screw his approval jiji. He doesn't care about the girl from what she's told me. And I'm not letting her go back to her toxic team. Kakashi is still mourning over the deaths of his old teammates and Minato. Sasuke turned out to be a revenge crazed asshole. I don't know anything about that Sai kid other than he follows Sasuke around. I wouldn't put it pass him to belittle Sakura if Sasuke is doing it." The red head retorted.

Sarutobi sighed. "Of course it would be that dysfunctional. Alright from this point on you will be her sensei. Do you think she'll be ready to compete in the chunin exams in two months?"

Kushina scoffed. "Please jiji, i'll have her more than ready. Me and Genma will be doing her training at an intense level."

"Very well but I won't have a team that she can join. I don't want her to participate in the exams by herself. But knowing you, you will force me to make the exception. Just please try to find her a team to join for the exams so I don't have to make her an exception. The exams are dangerous with a team of 3. One genin it would be nothing short of hell for them." Hiruzen pleaded.

"Like I said, she will be ready. If she chooses to take them by herself than I'll believe in her to pass the exams. I'll instill all the of the requirements and expectations of chunin and jounin into her. What are you going to tell Kakashi when he says she hasn't been reporting in?" Kushina asked.

"I'll just tell him that Sakura requested some time off to mourn the death of her parents. Then some point during the exams. I'll talk to him about his favoritism toward his male students." He told her.

Kushina grinned. "Great see you later jiji. Please don't request me for any missions until I come back to request for one unless it's an emergency. It's unlikely Sakura has had her first kill yet. So depending on her progress after a month. I'll take her on some missions to get that out of the way." With that the last Uzumaki of konoha disappeared.

Hiruzen sat back in his chair to sigh. He looked over to see the stack of papers on his desk. "I'm too old for this shit." He said.

**_Line Break_**

The red head appeared back to her house. She was greeted with the site of Sakura scratching lightly behind a purring Kurama.

"So I see you find his purring cute too huh?" Kushina giggled.

Sakura jumped not noticing Kushina's appearance. "Oh Kushina-chan you're back!"

"Mhm." Kushina nodded. "Well Sakura it's official, you no longer have to deal with your former team. The old man said that I could train you to my hearts content." She told Sakura with excitement.

Sakura gasped then ran to tackle Kushina into a hug. Kushina fell to the ground but did nothing but return the hug.

"Thank you so much Kushina-chan." Sakura nearly cried.

Kushina gently rubbed her back. "Hey hey don't worry about it. There was no way I was going to let Kakashi keep neglecting you like that. The hokage is going to inform him that you took time away to mourn your parents passing."

Sakura eventually let go of the hug to sit up. "Really that's good to know. So what are we going to do now?"

Kushina sat up herself. "First thing is that I want to take you shopping."

Sakura was surprised. "Take me shopping? Umm I don't think I have enough money to shop much. I used to save over half of the money I got from missions. I had a safe in my room but since my house is burned down. I'm 90% positive the money is gone to."

Kushina gave her a light chop to the head. "Sakura I said that _I _want to take you shopping. Meaning I will be paying for everything." She said with a smile.

Sakura eyes widened a bit. "W-wait! You don't have to d-do that! I can ju-" A hand covered her mouth.

That hand being Kushina's. "No waits, buts or anything else. I'm taking you shopping Sakura-chan. It's obvious you can't afford to restock your whole wardrobe. Not only that, we need to get you some ninja gear as well. That red dress of yours is cute. But I feel like you can do better."

Sakura just smile and nodded. She knew it wasn't no fighting against it. "Ok, thank you Kushina-sensei." She voiced only to get flicked in the forehead. "Ow!"

Kushina looked at her with a deadpanned expression. "No sensei stuff either. Think of me as your friend or guardian. I may be teaching you but I don't want just a student teacher relationship with you Sakura-chan. Now come on let's go." The red head stood up.

Sakura's heart skipped hearing the one and only Kushina Uzumaki. Tell her that she wants more than a student-teacher relationship with her. It made her want to cry all over again. She stood up. "Before we go I have a question." Sakura asked.

"Shoot." Kushina said.

"I don't mean to sound disrespectful in no way. I'm just curious as to how do you still look like you are in your mid twenties?" Sakura honestly wondered.

"Oh well you see it's a side effect from having Kurama sealed inside of me. I have eternal youth being his jinchuuriki since our chakra is melded together. Because of the seal my idiot ex husband used. It forced me and Kurama to be linked to one another to the point. Where if one of us dies, so does the other. My chakra is somewhat similar to his after all of the years my chakra has had to adapt to his bijuu chakra. Did I lose you anywhere?" Kushina explained.

Sakura looked shocked by the explanation. "No I understand just fine. Being a jinchuuriki doesn't sound all that bad. But how come the fourth hokage used a seal that binds you two in such a way?"

Kushina shrugged. "I've been wondering that for the last 14 years Sakura. The sealing jutsu he used is a kinjutsu because it required the life of the caster in order to fully perform the sealing. There are other seal he could've used to seal back Kurama. And you're damn right about being a jinchuuriki isn't all that bad. The pros outweigh the cons massively in my opinion. But that's not important now come on pinky-chan." The red head grabbed the pinkette's hand then used shunshin to disappear.

Sakura was taken to multiple stores inside the village. From clothes, shoes and accessories. All of it was bought by Kushina. Sakura was grateful that Kushina kept multiple scrolls on her. Couple of them being storage scrolls.

Everything they bought was stored inside of them. Eventually they got to a few shinobi stores. Kushina explained to Sakura the difference in the metals that were used to make shuriken and kunai. While Sakura knew the more you pay, the better quality you can get. She didn't know about the actual metal itself. So Kushina bought her an huge amount of shuriken, senbons and kunai. She didn't need to buy any books since she had loads of them in her library at her home.

Sakura found a light gray sleeveless shirt with black stripes. Black shinobi pants with black sandals. She also bought some black high heeled boots. A blue haori with short sleeves caught her interest as well. But what really got her attention was a katana with a white hilt. The blade looked like it could cut through anything. Out of everything in the store, Sakura knew she had to have that along with a chakra metal bo staff. That had a pink dragon going around it. She found a necklace with cherry blossoms metal pieces actually making the necklace. It had a silver kanji hanging from it. The kanji standing for fearless.

Sakura decided she wanted to represent being fearless. She would not back down to anyone or anything that challenge her. Kushina approved Sakura outfit and her approach to being fearless. But she warned her that if she's on a mission. She has to retreat if her team calls for it or if the situation is way too much to handle. To be able to live to see another day is always a victory.

When they got back to their home. Kushina asked Sakura what did she want to excel in.

"Well I kinda want to be an all around ninja. I know I have small chakra reserves. But I want to build them up. I don't want to be limited to certain things because I lack the chakra to perform them. I want to be able to use ninjutsu to a good extent. I remember Kakashi telling me I was a genjutsu type once. But as you know, he never tried to help me develop. I know my taijutsu is laughable. My stamina sucks. I never picked up a sword until today." Sakura rambled.

"Sakura listen I have an idea for you." Kushina cut off her rambling.

Sakura looked up at Kushina. "I'm happy that you said you want to be an all around ninja instead of just excelling in one art. So here's my idea. I want you to learn kenjutsu, medical ninjustu, fuinjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu." Kushina smirked.

Sakura looked at her as if she had a second head. "H-how do you expect me to learn all of that?"

"Easy, listen your chakra control is perfect. It's astounding as if matter of fact that it's in the 96th percentile. Nobody that I've ever come across has had that level of control of their chakra. I myself am only at 88th percentile. You can learn almost everything except medical ninjutsu from me. Me and one of my closest friends Genma will help you learn everything else I named. Genjutsu is a bit tricky for me. But I know basic ones. You can learn more from the scrolls I have inside the library I have. I'm not expecting you to master all of this soon. But I am expecting you to be proficient at most of them within a couple months." Kushina explained.

Sakura just nodded. "So who is going to help me learn medical ninjutsu?" She asked.

Kushina smirked. "Why Tsunade-sama herself. Who better than the best in the world to teach you?"

Sakura fainted after that. Kushina just laughed, she waited a few minutes for the pinkette to wake up.

Soon she did, Sakura shook her head. "So you're sure that Tsunade-sama will teach me? But how will I learn all of this in two months?"

"That's where the kage bunshin comes into play. I'm going to teach you how to make a shadow clone. Shadow clones are used for diversions typically. But not many know that they are also used for information gathering. Whatever a kage bunshin learns, it all goes back to the original ones the clone dispels. You might get a headache from the sudden information but as long as you don't use too many clones. You will be fine. Now the kage bunshin is a B-rank kinjutsu because it can kill you if you go overboard with it. For an example, say if you train with 100 clones. The feedback of all of the clones can kill you if you dispel them all at once. Most can't handle that kind of mental or chakra strain. So here is what you are going to do. I want you to try to perform the jutsu until you get it right. I want you try to make two solid shadow clones. This will help increase your reserves fast. Once that is done, I will send your clones to do some reading while you do physical training. I must warn you Sakura. My training can lead to death." Kushina straight up told her.

Sakura freaked out hearing that. "W-What?! I can die from this training?!" She yelled in disbelief.

"Yes you can however I'm not gonna let that happen obviously. I just wanted to give you a warning. I can refill your chakra by using Kurama's purified chakra. Don't worry his purified chakra isn't poisonous to you at all. It will also heal your wounds if you have any. Reason why I say you could die is because I going to be placing a couple seals on you to help improve your stamina quicker. I'm going to give you two seals. A gravity seal and a chakra coil expansion seal. It will take a day to get used to. The chakra seal with expand your chakra coils and reserves so you can have a larger amount of chakra. Right now from what I'm feeling. You have around mid-genin level reserves. To be a ninja who can excel in multiple arts. You need to have at least high chunin to low jounin chakra reserves. I know it sounds impossible to develop your reserves that much in only a couple months. But believe me it is definitely possible. Now are you ready to start your training? My friend Genma will show up either later on or tomorrow so you can meet him then." Kushina asked.

The pinkette was more than ready. She was absolutely happy that she met Kushina. "Oh yeah I'm definitely ready." She replied.

Kushina taught her the seals for the kage bunshin. For the next few hours, Sakura tried to perform the technique. As time kept going by, she felt herself getting closer to performing a perfect solid clone.

"Come on just one more time." She yelled to herself.

She took a deep breath. Focused all of her remaining chakra perfectly. Finally after many hours, Sakura was able to perform one solid shadow clone.

Sakura was happy and amazed that she actually pulled off a kinjutsu. She heard Kushina clapping for her.

"Good job Sakura-chan!" Kushina beamed.

The pinkette ran up to the red head and started shaking her. "Kushina-chan! Did you see it?! I finally did it! I finally di..." Sakura fell on her back unconscious. The clone dispelling.

Kushina just shook her head. "Chakra exhaustion at its finest. Now would be the perfect time to place the seals on her. The chakra coil expansion seal should work to its full power now that she's out of chakra and asleep."

She channeled chakra through her fingers. She traced over Sakura's stomach to place the seals. It took less than a minute to apply both of them.

"So who is the kid?" A voice spoke.

Kushina turned her head to see Genma himself. "This is Sakura Haruno. I took her in since I found her crying in front of her burnt down home. She lost her parents. Last night when I brought her here. She had a break down letting some information about her team slip out. I talked to her about it today. Turns out she's on that idiot Kakashi's team."

Genma felt bad hearing about Sakura's parents. Then he groaned hearing whose student she was. "Don't tell me that bastard did what I think he did?" He asked.

Kushina nodded. "Yep he neglected her for the uchiha on his team. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if he taught the kid his chidori by the time the chunin exams start."

The brunet sighed. "Great an revenge obsessed brat learning an A-rank assassination jutsu. Just what the village needs."

Kushina snorted. "I know right? But anyways, Sakura here has potential that needs to be unleashed. I knew I was right about seeing herself in me. To think that a civilian born child was able to learn how to perform a b-rank kinjutsu in a day. While also having her chakra control in the 96th percentile."

Genma almost choked on his toothpick. "96th?!" He asked incredulously.

Kushina smirked at his expression. "Yep found that out today visiting the old man. I'm telling you Genma, all she needs to for someone to guide her through the basics. I'm sure she'll blossom into a beautiful force to be reckoned with. That's why I need your help in training her. I could do it myself but I want her to get all the help she can before the exams. I'm going to go talk to Tsunade about teaching her medical ninjutsu. While we focus on the other subjects. It's a reason why I had her learn kage bunshin."

Genma sighed. "It's not like I had a choice in this anyways. Oh well hopefully I like the kid."

"Oh don't worry you will. She's a real sweetie and refreshing to be around." Kushina assured him.

"So what are you about to do now? She probably won't be up for awhile. Plus since I'm pretty sure I know what seals you put on her. She probably will be out of it for at least 8 hours." Genma asked.

"Well first I'm about to go see Tsunade-chan. I'm gonna try to convince her to teach Sakura medical ninjutsu. It can't hurt to ask. If she refuses, I'll just help Sakura with what I know about medical ninjutsu. I was planning on having her study books about the human body anyways." Kushina replied.

"I hope you don't run her into the grave." Genma chuckled.

"I hope so either. But I have a feeling that Sakura will get through it somehow. This first month is about to be crammed with training nonstop. We don't have a lot of time on our hands to go at a slow pace." Kushina replied as she disappeared using shunshin.

The brunet sighed. "Well guess I can go find something to eat in the refrigerator." He shrugged then made his way to the kitchen.

_**Line Break**_

At the hospital, Tsunade was minding her own business inside her office. She didn't have any paper work to fill out and Shizune was handling all of her other duties. So she was sitting behind her desk, sipping on a bottle of sake.

But then her favorite red head decided to appear in her office. When they made eye contact, Tsunade immediately knew her surrogate younger sister wanted something.

The blonde sighed. "Spill it Kushi-chan, what do you want?"

Kushina grinned widely, already knowing that Tsunade was gonna do something like that.

"It's about a new friend of mine I want to help. I need to do me a favor and train her as in medical ninjutsu." Kushina said.

Tsunade looked at Kushina as if she's grown a second head. "Baka you know I can't do that. I don't take on apprentices unless they have excellent chakra control to pass on my techniques too. Plus I don't even know her."

The red head smirked. "Oh really? Then I guess I must inform you that my friend has chakra control in the 96th percentile."

The blonde head medic fell out of her seat hearing that. She quickly got up and went to grab Kushina's shoulder with a firm grip. "Explain." She demanded.

A slight wince was made by Kushina. "Easy Tsuna no need to grab me so hard. You remember the last time you put a crack in my shoulder blade."

That just made the blonde shake her. "This is not the time for games Kushina! You know just as well as I do how rare it is to have someone with that much precise control over their chakra!" She roared.

'Yeah crushing my shoulder blade into pieces is a game." Kushina said mentally and rolled her eyes.

"Yes yes I know that Tsuna! Now calm down so I can tell you what happened." She told her.

Tsunade released her shoulders but was still looking at her with a demanding look.

"Kami you really need to fix that. But anyways do you remember Mebuki Haruno. You met her with me one time." Kushina asked.

Tsunade thought about that name. She did recall meeting some lady with a name similar to that with her younger sister before. "Yeah I think so, she was kinda a bitch." The blond answered.

"Mebuki and her husband died in a fire in their home last night. Their daughter Sakura was walking home as it was happening. As soon as she got their, the house was already burning. I don't know if they were any shinobi around the area at the time when it happened. But when I found her, Sakura was crying in front of it what was left of the house. I felt bad seeing her crying her heart out. So I asked what happened but she was too emotional to answer me at the time. So I took her to my home. I was able to get her to talk a bit last night and much more this morning. Apparently her sensei was Kakashi. But he was intentionally disregarding her. Long story short during an original c-rank mission that turned A-rank because of the whole Gato ordeal in wave. From what I could put together. The client must've lied about the original mission. So Kakashi let genin decide if they should continue the mission. The group encounter 2 b-rank missing nins and one A-rank. And the only thing that idiot taught her was tree walking during the whole time they were guarding the client. He tossed her to the side basically and gave extra training to his other students. Sakura used to be a fan girl and in love with the survivor of the uchiha massacre Sasuke Uchiha. Eventually she realized that Sasuke was an asshole and she wasn't taking her ninja career seriously. I don't know how Tsuna but a civilian born teenager has that level of control over her chakra. If she is trained correctly and given a huge amount of support. She can turn out to be something great. I don't know exactly what I'm expecting of her to be honest with you. But something is just telling me to help her out. It's only been a day and I'm already somewhat attached to her. That girl has gone through some unfair bullshit for awhile now. So please Tsuna help me out." Kushina explained.

Tsunade sighed, truthfully she felt bad for the girl. And with Kushina going into deep detail about it all. She knew she couldn't turn her away even if she wanted to. "Fine I'll help her out but I'm not taking her on as an apprentice. It doesn't sound like she's going to be a full-fledge med-nin. But I can't help but wonder myself just how good she can be with that type of chakra control. Hell I can't even limit her to medical ninjutsu. She has some major options to pick from."

Kushina threw herself into her surrogate older sister for a hug. "This is why I love you Tsuna!" Kushina cheered happily.

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah whatever. I want to meet this girl soon. Tomorrow if possible." She told Kushina.

"I'll have to have her send a shadow clone then. Right now I need to get her stamina and chakra reserves to increase massively before the month is over with." Kushina replied.

Tsunade eyes raised up slightly. "She knows how to make kage bunshins? Didn't you just say you needed her reserves to improve massively?" The blonde asked with a tone of surprise.

"Yeah, she just made her first two before I came over here. It took her a few hours to get it done. Honestly I wasn't expecting her to perform it until at least a week from now. I guess the tree walking exercise must've been a great help to reserves. I also put my personal chakra coil expansion seal on her as soon as she passed out from chakra exhaustion. From now on during, I'm not going to let her pass out whenever we train. I only did it now so the seal can be working at its full potential. She also has a gravity seal to help increase her speed and reflexes much quicker than they would have." Kushina answered her.

"Just how intense do you plan on training this girl?" Tsunade wondered.

"Intense enough to probably kill her. Of course I won't let her die. But I do plan on breaking her down and building her up. I plan to make her the strongest genin and possibly stronger than most chunin in only two months. If we are lucky enough, she'll be jounin level." Kushina answered.

Tsunade was a bit surprised. "Wow you really think she can achieve that level in such a short amount of time?"

"It's only one way to find out. I'll have her send a clone to the hospital tomorrow. Don't worry about it dispelling. I'm going to keep refilling her chakra reserves with Kurama's chakra. But if it so happens to disappear. I'll have her send another one." The red head replied.

Eventually the next day came along. It was 6 in the morning and Sakura was starting to wake up. The pinkette felt as if her chakra coils were strained.

"Kami why do I feel sore?" Sakura groaned.

Then she felt out her chakra and noticed she had much more than before. "Huh why do I feel like I have way more chakra to access than I did yesterday?" She wondered out loud.

"Because of the chakra coil seal I placed on you after you passed out."

Sakura looked over to see Kushina was sitting in her room.

"Good morning Sakura-chan, sorry to intrude but I kinda ended up falling asleep in this chair when I tucked you in last night." Kushina voiced light tone.

"I don't mind and thank you." Sakura thanked her.

Kushina smiled. "So are you ready to begin your trip to hell itself?"

Sakura gulped then steeled her resolve._ 'I will get stronger. I will no longer be taken as a weak link.' _She encouraged herself. "Yes I am Kushina-chan."

"Good come on, we'll get started after breaking. Oh are you on any diets by any chance?" Kushina asked.

The pinkette stood up while looking nervous. "Well I did partake in one trying to my trying to impress Sasu-" She was cut off by a flick to her nose.

"Baka, no more diets from now on. I know you're smart enough to know that shinobi's need protein to refill our chakra reserves. Food is an necessity for shinobi. So from now on, you will be eating like a horse to add on some weight to you. The muscle will define from the training. Now come on." Kushina scolded her.

"Hai" Sakura kinda whines but was grateful to actually be scolded like that.

After breakfast was over with. Kushina took Sakura in the backyard to her personal training ground.


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright Sakura we have two months to make you into a bad ass shinobi. So here's the first thing I want to get out of the way." Kushina took out a piece of chakra paper from her pouch.

"This is a chakra paper, it tell you your chakra nature. Every person has a chakra nature to their chakra. As you can probably guess. A person has one of the five basic elements as their chakra nature. But a person isn't limited to only one. Some people have two either indicating that they have primary and secondary. Or that they have some sort of bloodline. It's common for most chunin to have developed a second element. While a jounin is expected to have mastered two elements. Although I said expected, it's not necessarily a requirement. Now don't get to thinking that a person can only perform ninjutsu related to their chakra nature. A shinobi can perform a jutsu from any of the five elements. But it's easier to learn jutsu's of your element." Kushina explained as she handed Sakura the paper.

Sakura took it and asked. "How will I know which one I have?"

"I was just getting to that. If it's fire, the paper will burn. Water, the paper will become soaked. Wind, it will split in half. Earth, it will turn into dirt and crumble then lightning it will crinkle. Just channel your chakra into the paper." Kushina told her.

The pinkette did as she was told. She simply channeled her chakra into the paper. However, neither her or Kushina were prepared for the interested results she got.

The paper cut vertically into four pieces. 2 pieces turned damp while the other two turned into dirt then crumbled. The two wet pieces were then sliced into multiple mini pieces.

Neither one of them said a word as Sakura was trying to figure out what happened. She looked up to see Kushina staring at her with her jaw hanging looking at her in disbelief.

"Uhh...so what does that mean?" Sakura asked trying to break the silence.

"Well well Sakura it seems there's more to you than I can even began to imagine. Your primary element is wind which is very rare. Konoha doesn't have many wind users except for me and Asuma Sarutobi. However you seem to have a unnatural strong affinity to wind. What's also shocking is that you have water and earth. Which both are surprisingly equal. Making them a tie for your secondary. It's such a shame that an idiot like Kakashi did not try to help you unleash your potential. To think that a genin. A fucking genin only a couple months out of the academy has 3 elements." The red head said.

"B-But I don't understand how? I'm just a regular civilian child. No one in my family has any history of being a shinobi. Trust me I asked my parents many times about this." Sakura voiced a bit confused.

"Looks like you're the odd one out of the bunch then. Hell not even most jounin have three elements. I'm happy for you Sakura." Kushina beamed.

"How many elements do you have?" Sakura asked.

"I have mastered all five, me and the old man both have done so. But when I first started out. I only had two which were wind and water. You can develop affinities to other elements if you practice jutsu that involves an element you don't have. As well it can just develop over time." The red head explained.

"I see." Sakura replied.

"Ok now I want to make a many shadow clones as you can. But only make enough to where you still fully function." Kushina told her.

Sakura nodded then performed some hand signs. She focus her chakra and felt out how much chakra she should use without exhausting herself.

To Kushina's surprise 10 clones popped into existence.

"That's as many as I can make without feeling tired." Sakura said.

'I was expecting 3 not 10. Seems like her chakra reserves increased more than I thought.' The red head thought.

"Good seems like the seal is working real nicely if you can already make 10 clones without feeling tired. Also in case you forgot. I put a gravity seal on you too. The only reason you aren't feeling it's strain is because your body adjusted to the pressure while you were sleep. Ok so I'm going to make a clone to lead you guys to the library in the house. I want you 10 to go find books and scrolls on these subjects. Fuinjutsu, the human body, nature manipulation of the five elements, kenjutsu 101, assassinations, ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, shinobi history of the great five nations and plants." Kushina instructed as she made a clone of her own. All of the clones left to go to the library.

"Umm Kushina are you sure I'll be able to handle the mental strain?" Sakura asked nervously.

"On your own? No but with me at your side. I'll be sorting out your memories with a jutsu of mine once I tell you to dispel them. For the next your clones are going to be deep into the books. I'm making you study many things. Trust me you'll thank me for it eventually." Kushina answered honestly.

"Well I did always love studying and learning new things so I don't mind. My former best friend Ino always did call me a bookworm. Plus I have a near perfect memory. Sakura said.

"Bookworm indeed, ok so we are going to focus on building your stamina and taijutsu. I'm going to keep refilling your stamina and reserves until I think we've trained enough. Oh before I forget, make one more clone to go to the hospital. Tsunade is waiting to begin your medical ninjutsu training. You'll meet Genma today most likely.

Sakura wanted to shriek in excitement. She was learning under Kushina Uzumaki and Tsunade Senju. Life was really looking on the upside for her.

"Thank you for your help Kushina-chan." Sakura said.

Kushina waved her off. "Don't worry about it, if you want to repay me in some way do it by becoming an excellent shinobi. In a month I'm going to be taking you on a mission to get your first kill out of the way. So be prepared."

Sakura nodded, even though she didn't know how to feel about doing her first kill. She knew killing was apart of being a ninja. She had to accept that fact.

The training was started by them running around the village. Kushina normally does a warm up of running around the village 10 times when she starts her daily training. She ran at the same pace as Sakura for now. By the third lap, Sakura was breathing heavy but kept running. Kushina would refill her stamina only once so far.

Once they were done with running. They were met with Genma and Tsunade at their home waiting for them.

Sakura introduced herself nervously to them. After chatting with them a bit. Kushina led them to her training ground.

Ok Sakura-chan, I'm sure you were taught how to throw correct punches and kicks right?" Kushina asked.

Sakura nodded. "Good I want you to practice punching and kicking a tree. We'll be observing your form then afterwards we are all going to spar with you one at a time." Kushina informed her.

The rosette paled at the thought of fighting those three. Unfortunately she didn't have a choice. While she was taking her fearless approach to the shinobi life seriously. She wasn't stupid enough to delude herself into thinking she has a slight chance of lasting against any of them. Not to mention, something in her head screamed at her that Kushina was going to put her through the wire in their spar.

"Hai." She responded then walked over to a tree. She got into the stance she learned from the academy. Taijustu really _wasn't _her forte. But she was knew how to really punch from her former Sasuke fan girl club days. Some girls would try to test her so they could take her spot as the number 1 Sasuke fan girl. Sadly they all failed since Sakura knew she had a temper. She would punch them if they really pissed her off. Some boys would also try to ask her out. Most of the time, she would politely decline them. The other times she had to hit the boys who tried to get too comfortable with her.

Sakura problem was she didn't really put an effort into developing her shinobi skills at a young age. Sure she knew it was Kakashi's job to actually improve her skills from the time their team formed. He purposely neglected her for her teammates only teaching her teamwork exercises and tree walking. But it was her job while she was in the academy to make sure she was physically and mentally prepared to actually be ready to become a shinobi. A genin at that. She was highly unprepared for the lifestyle. Being with a shitty team, being absolutely useless in their first real mission and just pathetic overall made her realize this. That's why she vowed to get stronger.

She started punching and kicking the tree. Each kick just feeling a bit foreign to her since she was not used to doing this. Also felt like her punches are lacking in something. Sakura doesn't realizes but her punches are real strong once she's angry.

The three other shinobi who were watching the distance were having a conversation of their own.

"So what brought you two over here?" Kushina asked.

"Pinky was passed out before she noticed I was there yesterday. So I decided to come introduce myself again before I get called for a mission." Genma replied.

"I want to see this little civilian girl that you were going on about so strongly last night. After all I am teaching her medical ninjutsu." Tsunade voiced.

"What about the hospital?" Kushina wondered.

"Shizune is there running everything in my place. If things get too overwhelming then my shadow clone I left back will dispel informing me." The blonde answered.

"Hm her punches aren't half bad. You can tell she isn't used to using her legs for kick though." Genma remarked.

"Well her records state that taijutsu isn't one of her strong points. She's a genjutsu type so it's not surprising. It won't take long for her to be comfortable with fighting." Kushina said.

Sakura was constantly throwing punch after punch and kick after kick. The pinkette frustration were peaking. All of her punches still didn't feel right no matter how hard she tried to punch. At some point, she gave up on using her legs to kick. As her frustrations were building up, she started remembering memories of her being useless and pathetic. It was really bothering her for some reason. Then she heard her teammates voices.

"_You always going to be in the way Sakura."_

_"__Hey Ugly, can I draw use your forehead as inspiration for my drawing?"_

_"__Maa Sakura, I have nothing to really teach you right now."_

_"__Stop asking me out on dates. You're annoying, I will never go out with a useless girl like you. Seriously you why do you even try?"_

_"__Ugly how did you even become a ninja?" _

_"__Sakura stop being annoying to your teammates." _

_"__A civilian girl like you won't last long in this lifestyle Sakura. You're too weak to do anything."_

Little did the pinkette know, she had tears streaming down her emerald eyes. Sakura narrowed her eyes in absolute anger. Never in her life has she felt so angry. Angry at the world for taking her parents away. Angry at her team for being assholes. Angry at herself for her own flaws. Just angry overall.

The next punch Sakura threw at the tree. She was in perfect form of throwing a strong punch. She threw her body weight with her hips. Squeezed her muscles in her right arm and her fist tightened. Her chakra flared due to her emotional state. She was also subconsciously channeling her chakra into her fist at a single point.

**"****SHUT THE HELL UP! SHAAAANNNNNAAAARRROOOOOO!" **Sakura screamed in rage.

When her fist made contact with the tree. It crumbled into pieces from Sakura's monstrous strength. The pinkette had felt her chakra that was built up in her at her fist released on impact. An epiphany had hit her. She was breathing a bit heavy from her emotional outburst. Really surprised and embarrassed that it happened so unexpectedly.

She wasn't the only one surprised as those who were watching from the sidelines were shocked.

"Hey Kushina are you sure this girl is a civilian child?" Genma asked with an stupefied expression.

"Positive, well looks like we've discovered an Tsunade junior. I don't know what made her to yell out like that. But I felt her chakra spike. Her raw strength is really impressive but to be able to channel chakra into a single point and perfectly do it on her first try is nothing short of astonishing. Whether it happened subconsciously or not." Kushina deducted with amusement and happiness. She was going to have some much fun with Sakura in her life now.

Tsunade didn't even know what to say. A mere civilian child was able to use her strength technique at a younger age than Tsunade herself. She no longer held any doubts about the girl. "Kushina you're preparing her for the chunin exams right?" She asked.

The red head nodded. "Hell yeah, I'm preparing her for more than that. I'm gonna prepare her to be my partner in battle."

Tsunade smirked. "Very well then. Sakura can you please come here." She called out.

Sakura walked back looking confused and somewhat excited. "Hai Tsunade-sama?"

"You have a lot of potential kid. I see why Kushina insisted on me teaching you medical ninjutsu. Well I'm also going to be teaching you my strength technique. That punch you just did was exactly my technique. To focus chakra into a single point into the fist. Then released it on impact causing massive destruction. I would've been impressed if you simply put a dent in that tree. But you actually made it crumble into pieces. With some practice, you will be leveling battle fields in no time. Which is what I want you to be able to do by the time the exams start. So when I'm not training your clone in medical ninjutsu. This is where I will be training the real you in my other techniques." Tsunade told her.

Sakura couldn't died of happiness right there and then.

For the whole rest of the month, Sakura was dragged to hell and back then back to hell again. Kushina was not lying about the training potentially killing her. The pinkette was forced to run 10 times around the village 6 days out of the week. Kushina increased the her gravity seal to level 2 during the second week of the month. Sakura was forced to fight Kushina as if she was trying to kill her. Because Kushina told her she wasn't holding any punches. That the only way Sakura will truly improve her fighting style quickly. She would have to be put in life or death situations. That led to Kushina beating the living hell out of her. Luckily for Sakura, she surprisingly had some good instincts. They helped her out quite a lot when she would feel the rush of battle travel through her veins. Sparring with Tsunade was similar because Tsunade told Sakura she needed to dodge at all cost. A medical ninja cannot afford to be injured in case their a comrade who needs healing. Even though she wasn't going to be a true full fledge medical ninja. The advice was still helpful.

Genma was the least harshest in their sparring. But he did give her a scroll out taijutsu moves to incorporate into her baseless taijutsu style. Sakura also liked Genna's laid back personality a lot better than Kakashi's. It helped that Genma did not read porn in public. The shadows clones were a massive help to improving her skills.

She was able to study various subjects. Being a bookworm, made her love gaining knowledge. So it wasn't a surprise when she taken in a few favorites. Fuinjutsu, wind and water nature manipulation and assassination.

Kushina was surprised when Sakura told her those were her favorites. She assumed the rosette wouldn't be into assassination at all. Fuinjutsu she was excited about because many shinobi don't use the art. Nature manipulation wasn't too surprising. Kushina expected her to take a stronger liking into genjutsu and medical ninjutsu since she is a genjutsu type.

During the month both Kushina and Sakura developed a close bond. Considering they spent every day together it was expected. Sakura was immensely grateful to Kushina. So she wanted to make her proud and always stick by her side. Kushina loved her company. Sakura had a special place in her heart. Kushina considered her precious to her. She wanted to see Sakura rise to the top. At the rate the pinkette was developing. Kushina knew that she would and the chunin exams is where she will make her name be known in the ninja world.

Tsunade and Sakura also have gotten much closer. In some ways to Tsunade, the rosette was like her youngest daughter. Sakura temper was very similar to hers. Add to the fact that she was a naturally in the medical field and could use her strength technique. Tsunade couldn't help but become attached to Sakura. It's similar for Sakura as well. She enjoyed learning from Tsunade. The slug princess was very caring like Kushina. She had many stories from the second and third great shinobi war to share. Tsunade told her off the depression she went through from losing her loved ones. The enemies she defeated. How outclassed her and her former teammates were against Hanzo the salamander. For some unexplainable reason, Tsunade spilled her whole life story to Sakura.

It was a joy to listen to for Sakura because it answered some questions she had when she read books about the history of the shinobi world.

Speaking of history, the more she learned about her own villages history. Sakura developed a huge appreciation for the second hokage, Tobirama Senju. He is the reason why konoha has a military system that led them to become the strongest of the five great villages. He was the one who established the academy to teach children from a young age who either wanted to become a shinobi or had the talent to. That isn't to say the first hokage didn't impact the village greatly. It's just that his younger brother made a greater impact in her opinion.

Genma also took a liking into Sakura. He treated her as a younger sister. Sakura would some times pout childishly when Genma would tease her. Though eventually she started to throw banter back at him the more time she spent around him, Tsunade and especially Kushina.

During the month, Sakura also practiced her kenjutsu skills. While it was a slow process, she is improving thanks to fighting against two high level shinobi. Fuinjutsu was so interesting to her. It was the subject she spent most of her free time on. Also the subject she uses more than clone to study. She always had good handwriting. So perfecting her calligraphy skills wasn't the most difficult thing in the world. It was exciting learning about seals. But she loved drawing them. Kushina helped out whenever she had a question about any particular seal. Sakura by the end of the first month was able to make every beginner seal and some intermediate ones. Mostly thanks to shadow clones of course.

Genjutsu went at a fair pace. Considering she wasn't that interested in it. She was able to learn three genjutsu techniques. A part of her considered making her own at some point. The one thing Sakura did struggle with was earth manipulation. She had the least practice with it out of her three affinities. Because she focused more on wind and water. Sakura learned practiced her affinities by trying to use her chakra to make the water move. She focused her strongest affinity wind by cutting leafs in half. It also helped that, Kushina led her to a mini water fall outside of the village. She practiced splitting the water with her wind chakra. While trying for make waves using her water chakra. She also tried forcing water to form around her hand as an exercise. It was much easier than trying to makes waves. She learned from books and Tsunade about the second hokage being able to draw water out from thin air. So she decided to practice that to. Even though she did not know how to really go by it. She just tried to focus drawing water out of the air by using what little training she had using her water chakra. She had taken a liking into mediation.

To her surprise, whenever she tried to focus her wind chakra through her body. A slight breeze come out of her. The first time it happened, she was excited. She told Kushina about it. The red head was also surprised to see it. Kushina told Sakura to keep practicing it to see how far she could go with it.

The second month is where her training took a step to the next level. If she thought things were intense before. She surely changed her mind. Kushina and Tsunade took their sparring sessions with her more seriously. Now that she was used to having injuries and had a higher pain tolerance. Sakura saw her life flash before he eyes many times. Especially when Kushina would use her large reserves to spit ninjutsu at her multiple times. Sakura had to fight for her life now. That's the message her two role models sent her. So she fought back as hard as she could with the intent to kill. At least twice a week she would fight then in a handicap. It was to get used to fighting multiple enemies at once.

Sakura's strength, speed, hand signs speed, accuracy, battle tactics, sword skills and so on all took a huge leap the second month of her training. She was ever so greatly for Kushina using Kurama's purified chakra to heal her along the way. An interesting development happened with her chakra reserves and potency. Due to Kurama's purified chakra being pour into her coils multiple times a day. It helped out the seal increased Sakura's reserves whenever the seal was active. It also helped increased Sakura's abilities slightly while her chakra became more potent.

Now whenever Sakura would mediate. She was much more in tune with her wind chakra. The wind jutsu's she learned were much more stronger. The same could be said for her water jutsu's as well. Although not to the degree of her wind techniques. Earth style was easier to use but it still needed a lot of work compared to her other two. Although she could do three earth style justu's now.

Sakura could now cause more destruction with her strength technique. Tsunade approved of results. As Tsunade said, once she practiced with it more. It became easier to utilize. Tsunade was surprised with The development of Sakura's chakra. So she and Shizune made her take some test to make sure it wasn't harmful to her in any ways. Thankfully it was quite the opposite. Sakura's new chakra was extremely beneficial to her. It made Tsunade, Shizune, Kushina and Genma all wonder what would Sakura be capable of in the near future.

During the two month, Sakura also met Kushina's friends. Who in turn eventually became hers as well. Anko was the first one she met. At first she was a bit thrown off by Anko's weird habit. Like liking blood of our people's cuts that she causes. Though she did grow to like the special jounin. Anko even introduced Sakura to Ibiki her superior in the T&I department.

Ibiki was intrigued by Sakura's intelligence. So her taught her a couple things about his specialty which is torture. Sakura found Ibiki to be a interesting person to talk to. Even if he did sound cold hearted. She knew he was a nice person over all.

She was quite surprised that gate watchers Izumo and Kotestu were friends of Kushina. The two would have fun trying to tease her similar to Genma. So she would banter with them. Sometimes even spar with them. The chunin duo were not prepared for Sakura's prowess. So when they took a punch from her. Both instantly regretted seeing how much raw power she possessed. While their were able to overwhelm her using their weapons. Sakura was able to hold her ground against them pretty well. Considering her punches and kicks hurt like hell. The duo were able surprised by the number of ninjutsu she knows. But overall they all became good friends.

Kushina had taken Sakura out on a C-rank mission to take out some bandits. It was the easiest way to get her first kill out of the way. When they found the bandit camp. Both agreed to try to take them by surprise. Unfortunately they kunoichi's were met with a disgusting act being taken into place.

A few women were being raped against their will. Sakura felt her blood boiling. Suddenly her mind was shut off. She jumped into action and began killing every single bandit she came across with ease.

Kushina was pissed just like Sakura. But a bit thrown off by her actions. She didn't expect her to just start killing them off. But it was too late to do anything about it now.

By the end of the attack, Sakura had killed 50 bandits. Kushina took out 30. Once the adrenaline wore off. Sakura vomited in disgust with herself. She cried for a couple minutes. Kushina comforted her and explained that this is the life of a shinobi.

Sakura knew that she had to get this out of the way. Especially since she's interested in assassination. From that point on Sakura and Kushina took 2 C-ranks with one of them becoming an A-rank. And one B-rank. She also fought one on one against against 2 B-ranked missing nins during their A-rank mission. Thanks to her training, killing the missing nins weren't too much of a challenge for her.

Kushina and Tsunade told her not to get cocky. She needed more experience in the field still. It was ok for her to be confident. But just don't let that confidence turn into arrogance because that could get her and any team she's on killed on a mission. Sakura took those words to heart.

Due to her constant training whenever she wasn't on a mission or taking a break on a mission. She was able to do some interesting things with her wind and water affinities.

Now she could take the water out of thin air. It wasn't on the level of the second hokage's skill. But she could do it nonetheless. It was amusing for her when she was trying to form small objects out of the water from the air. She learned that due to the human body being made up of at least 70% water. She could use the water inside along with her chakra to draw out water from the air as well as using her water chakra.

Wind took a real interesting turn of events. She learned how to use focus wind chakra out of her feet. It caused her to levitate into the air. Although for her to have balance. The output of wind chakra had to be equal.

She showed this to Genma, Kushina and Tsunade. All three fell on their assess calling Sakura the prodigy surpassing Kakashi and Itachi Uchiha.

Which wasn't that much of a stretch if you can figure out how to fly as a genin. A civilian born genin at that.

"Ok Sakura, two month has officially passed. I have no doubt in my mind that you are the strongest genin in the village. Hell at the rate you improved, I'm sure you can beat any chunin in the village too. Maybe even some low level jounin." Kushina told the pinkette as they were both laying on her bed.

Sakura turned over to look at the red head. "Damn who would've ever thought I would get this strong in just two months. I mean come on I know you weren't expecting _this _much out of me so soon."

Kushina snorted. "Well yeah I have to admit I wasn't expecting you to turn out this strong so soon. But hey no one expected Kurama's chakra to have that type of affect on you. Hell even Kurama still doesn't know how it happened."

Sakura laughed. "True but I'm glad that it did. Now I can kick everybody's ass in the exams tomorrow."

Over the 2 month period Sakura slept with Kushina whenever she had a nightmare about her parents death. Well eventually Sakura just ended up sleeping in her room all the time. Making it their room which Kushina didn't mind. Sakura was very cuddly and Kushina loved holding her. The red head even kisses her forehead sometimes.

"Yeah just be careful I heard there is some interesting competition this year. Especially from Gia's team." Kushina warned her.

"That just makes it all the more fun." Sakura replied excitingly.

The two talked until they fell asleep with one another. The day of the exams finally was here as the sun had rose.

Sakura had woken up. She was being held by Kushina as usual. It was a real pain getting up, since she enjoyed being held by Kushina. She made her way to the bathroom to take a shower and get herself ready.

She was excited to see her friends compete with her. During these intense two months. Sakura wanted to make friends with the people her age as well. She had always wanted to be friends with Hinata. So one day she caught the blunette out walking in the village. She struck up a conversation with her and they've been good friends ever since. Sakura even helped Hinata with her stuttering habbit and encouraged her to have more confidence in herself. The pinkette also befriended Tenten. Their friendship started at Tenten's family weapons shop. Sakura was there to get her sword refined. After talking to Tenten for an hour. The brunette taught Sakura how to refine her weapons.

Kurama's chakra also led to some changes to Sakura's body. Along with making her affecting her chakra, it affected her body in a good way. Now she was no longer 4'8. The pinkette grew several unexpected inches. Now making her 5'4. The growth spurt was remarkable to Tsunade. Sakura's waist and legs were thicker than before. You could see the toned muscles in her legs and arms. And her hair grew a bit longer. It was tied in two loose pony tails like Tsunade's. Only Sakura's hair was longer.

Sakura was wearing an all black outfit. Black capri pants with a tight black shirt. Her breast had grew from b-cups to c-cups. So they were more noticeable than before. Sakura didn't mind since hanging around Anko and Kushina causes you to be more forward with yourself. Over her tight shirt was a jounin style black vest. Although it was smaller than the typical jounin vest. It still had the same padding to protect you in it. She wore her black shinobi sandals and to top it all off. Sakura was wearing the cursed necklace she received from Tsunade who got it from her grandfather.

Kushina was checking Sakura out. Some small part of her desired the pinkette. She quickly got rid of those thoughts and complimented her Sakura.

"You look stunning, I'm sure boys are going to be drooling over your appearance." Kushina commented.

"Thank you Shina-chan. I just wonder how is gonna recognize the diamond on my forehead first. I still can't believe Tsuna really taught me how to use this technique of hers." Sakura pointed to the purple diamond on her forehead.

"Most likely some chunin or jounin will. Now get a move on girl. I'll be watching you from a distance. Be sure to kick some ass out there." Kushina encouraged her.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Sakura responded eagerly as she made sure she had her pouch filled with scrolls and weapons. Her blade was on her back.

The pinkette sprinted to the roof tops, making her way to the academy.

Kushina watched her take off. "You better make it passed the first two exams Sakura. If not me and Tsuna will be on your ass like no tomorrow." She said to herself.

It didn't take long for Sakura to reach the academy. She was happy that she didn't have to worry about being on a team with her former team.

"It would've been a pain in the ass if I was still apart of that team." Sakura said to herself as she was walking in.

First thing she noticed was the crowd of people in front of a door. She instantly recognized a couple things. First was it was an obvious genjutsu on the door. Two is that Kotetsu and Izumo suck at disguising themselves. Three, she saw Tenten in the crowd with a teammate of hers it looks like.

Sakura knew Tenten wasn't stupid. That genjutsu is too obvious for her brunette friend not to notice. So she figured Tenten must be up to something.

The pinkette just shrugged and kept going up the stairs. Before she went to room 301. She took a small detour around the academy. It's really been almost 6 months since she's last been here. So much has changed for her since then. Just a little over two months ago she was still the same weak little girl who didn't take being a shinobi seriously. Now she was a full fledge shinobi who will put her life on the line for those she hold dear. Today was is the day where she starts to rise to the next level.

Sakura eventually made her way to room 301. It wasn't a shock to see genin from other villages trying to intimidate her. She rolled her eyes at their attempt then looked around to see if there was anybody she recognized. That was put on hold when she sensed bijuu chakra inside the room. Another factor with Kurama's chakra. Now she was able to sense chakra signatures at a high degree. To the point where she can sense bijuu chakra like a jinchuuriki could. While most people can't sense a bijuu chakra unless the beast it's being produced. Sakura is now an exception to that. The pinkette found the source coming from a red hair boy from suna. He had a gourd on his back with red kanji standing for love tattooed on his forehead. His eyes looked so dark and sad. But that is a common trait for jinchuuriki's who aren't loved in their villages.

'Wait a second! I recognized his face. That's Gaara of the desert from suna. The boy to never get hurt in a fight yet. Well it's a good thing Kushina made me read every bingo book she had.' Sakura thought to herself.

Gaara noticed Sakura was staring at him. He didn't understand why but it didn't bother him. She wasn't looking at him with fear in her eyes. It was more of an amused look she was portraying. That particular look made him not feel any temptations to kill her.

Sakura ended up spotting the rookie 9. Honestly she wasn't really trying to deal with Ino of her old teammates. She saw Hinata and perked up instantly.

"Hinata!" The pinkette screamed as she ran towards her blunette friend then hugged her.

Hinata was caught off guard by her Sakura's actions. But she smiled at returned the hug. "Hello Sakura." Hinata greeted.

Sakura broke the hug. "Man am I glad to see you here. You should've told me you were entering the exams." Sakura pouted playfully.

"Sorry it kinda slipped my mind. Every time we hung out. I just somehow forgot to tell you." Hinata replied sheepishly.

The pinkette rolled her eyes then smiled. "Of course you did."

While those two were talking. The rest of the rookie 9 were gaping at what was going on.

"W-Wow that's Sakura?!" Kiba yelled as a blush crept onto his face.

Sakura looked at Kiba then smirked. She put a hand on her hip and walked in a sexy way drawing all eyes of the room on her.

Kiba didn't know what to do. He's never had a girl this attractive walk up to him before.

Sakura cupped his right cheek with her left hand. "Why yes Kiba-kun. It is me the one and only Sakura Haruno."

Kiba froze feeling her hand on his face. The tone of her voice was becoming too much for him. And not only him but a lot of the guys in the room as well. The girls were finding this quite amusing.

"U-U-Uhh." Kiba tried to speak.

The pinkette wanted to start laughing right then and there. But she knew he was close to breaking.

She slowly moved her hand from his face to his neck then his chest. Sakura took one more step into his personal space and winked at him.

That did it for Kiba, the Inuzuka passed out on the ground from a nosebleed. The other guys who were affected all accumulated nosebleeds but only some of them passed out.

Sakura started dying from laughter. "Kami you boys are way too easy!"

All of the other girls all had similar thoughts as the pinkettes.

"Forehead is that really you? Are you sure you're not using a henge to get to Sasuke-Kin?" Ino questioned.

For the third or fourth time today. Sakura rolled her eyes this time due to Ino. "Yes I'm sure this is not a henge. Let's just say this last couple months have been good to me." She smirked.

Ino huffed and folded her arms. "Whatever you may look more attractive now but you still won't get Sasuke-kun over me!"

"You can have the emo, narcissistic, avenger wanna asshole. I'm over his ass. He can go get fucked in the ass by Kakashi for all I care. Knowing Kakashi he probably would do it considering if Sasuke demanded with his Uchiha superiority complex. Hell its no wonder the second hokage separated the Uchiha clan. Most of them are fucked up in the head." Sakura nonchalantly replied.

That response left everyone in the rookie nine except Hinata gaping at Sakura even more. Hinata already knew how Sakura felt about Sasuke. Hearing all that he did. The blunette fully supported Sakura her feelings.

Sasuke was seething. He was just disrespected in front of everybody. Not only him but his clan was as well. He walked up to Sakura and glared furiously at her. "Where the hell do you get off saying that! This is the first time I've seen you in two months and you disrespected my clan in front of me!"

Sakura returned his glare. "Like I give a fuck. Get out of my face Sasuke. I no longer want anything to do with you. If you don't move, I'll force you out of my way." She warned.

Sasuke smirked. "Yeah right as if you could make m-"

The raven haired uchiha was cut off by a vice grip on his neck. Sasuke was slammed hard into the ground. He felt killer intent directly solely at him. When he looked into Sakura's eyes. He saw how cold they were. As if she was willing to kill him without any hesitation. Sasuke hasn't felt like this since his encounter with Zabuza.

Suddenly the feeling went away and he was sweating on the ground trying to catch his breath. Sakura had let go of his neck and walked back over to Hinata.

Most of the room were surprised at how easily Sakura took down Sasuke. One wouldn't expect an Uchiha to be brought down so easily. Plus she scared the guy shitless.

Tenten came over to greet her friend. "Yo Sakura I see you're already drawing attention to yourself."

"And I see that you were plotting something when you were by that door with the genjutsu on it." Sakura said.

"Heh yeah that didn't work out like I hoped but hey I'm glad that you guys are here." Tenten voiced.

"I feel the same, So Sakura who is on your team?" Hinata asked.

The pinkette did not answer. All she did was gave a small smile to her and winked.

Hinata got that message instantly. Obviously it meant it was a secret. However she knew that it also meant that Sakura did not have a team. "Ok I understand." The blunette answered.

"Heh I knew you would." Sakura said.

Choji and Shikamaru were looking from a distance.

"Wow can't believe how much Sakura has changed. It's almost like she a complete different person." Choji voiced.

Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome that's because she is. Personality wise so far. It'll only be completely true if she's somehow gotten better skill wise." He lazily said.

Ino was a bit jealous. Sakura now has everybody's attention. Plus Ino knew that Sakura was now better looking than her. Which didn't make sense to her at all.

'How could she have changed so much in only 6 months?' Ino thought.

Lee had decided to introduce himself to Sakura. "Hello Sakura-san, I am the leaf villages handsome devil Rock Lee. Please go out of a date with me!" Lee asked enthusiastically.

Sakura was a bit thrown off by Lee. The boy's appearance was very _distinctive. _Those bushy eyebrows and green jump suit was weird.

'But hey who I am to judge? The guy had to have a lot of confidence in himself if he asked me to go out with him on a date with that jump suit on. He's not all that bad looking either.' Sakura mentally shrugged. Before she answered, the bandages on his hands caught her attention.

"Umm sorry Lee but I kinda don't know you that well. But I wouldn't mind if you wanted to be friends and hang out sometimes." Sakura offered.

Lee was sad about the rejection. Though he peeked up hearing she wanted to be friends. "Do not worry about it Sakura-chan. Friends is fine with me. It is a very youthful suggestion."

"Uh yeah youthful right. But anyways can you show me whats under your bandages?" The pinkette asked.

Lee was a bit surprised by this question. "May I ask why?"

"Because I can heal your hands. Also I can tell you worked hard so I want to admire the proof of it." Sakura answered with a smile.

Lee was shocked by her answer. Never has someone but his sensei ever really wanted to admire his dedication. So he slowly unwrapped his bandages. Sakura looked at the cuts on his knuckles. Lee's skin was torn off of them.

Sakura channeled medical chakra into her hand and healed Lee's hands. She was inspired by the proof of dedication. Sakura knew Lee must've went through some hellacious training to do this to his hands. It kinda made her want to fight against him.

It didn't take long for her hands to be fully healed. Once they were she stopped using her chakra and smiled. "There you're all healed." She said.

Lee nodded in appreciation. "Thank you Sakura-chan. I will never forget your youthful actions." He told her as he was wrapping his hand back up.

This is where Kabuto made his appearance. Sakura instantly caught his scent and narrowed her eyes.

'He smells like snakes. It's only two ways that could be possible. I'm sure Anko would have told me if there was person in the village who specialized in snakes. Especially if he's a konoha ninja.' Sakura thought then realization hit her. "He's a spy!' She concluded.

She instantly took out a kunai and threw it in his direction. It only grazed his cheek like she wanted it to. "Oi back off, I don't like that scent on you." Sakura warned him with narrowed eyes.

For one second she saw the gray haired ninja with glasses eyes slightly widen. 'Bingo.' Sakura thought.

Kabuto just turned around and went somewhere else.

"What was that about?" Tenten asked.

"I'll explain it to you at a different time. Our instructor is about to arrive." Sakura answered.

A second later, Ibiki Morino did appear in the room. "Alright you maggots shut the hell up! It's time for the first part of the exam." He ordered.

Sakura grinned seeing Ibiki was here. When everyone was assigned their seats. Ibiki passed out the test and began explaining the rules.

Sakura half way listened to his explanation. Since she was looking at the chunin who looked like they were judging the test takers. She noticed Izumo and Kotetsu. Sakura nodded to them as they did the same.

Ibiki started the test. Sakura looked at the questions.

'Ok I know I can definitely answer these. But most genin can't. These are chunin type questions. Hell maybe even some jounin. They would have to cheat. Oh shit that's the point!' Sakura thought.

The pinkette made eye contact with Ibiki. She smirked at him. He returned her smirk.

'I knew you would understand my intentions pinky.' Ibiki thought.

'Hey Inner make sure Ino doesn't try to get into my mind. She can find someone else to cheat off of.' Sakura told Inner.

**"****I'm already ahead of you outer.' **Inner replied

'Good.' Sakura voiced to her.

She answered all of the questions. Once time was up. Ibiki started fucking with the genin's head about being able to prevent them from becoming chunin if they choose to not listen to the 10th question.

"The fact that most of these idiots believe him is baffling." Sakura said to herself.

"So are you willing to take the risk? Those of you who are not can raise your hand." Ibiki instructed.

10 seconds had passed and Sakura was over it. She raised her hand only to slam it on the table. Drawing everyone's attention in the room.

"Seriously how long are you going to keep fucking with their heads. Even if that was true I don't give a damn if I have to stay a genin. I will still be a proud shinobi who will face danger head on in order to protect those I hold hear. So get on with the question already." Sakura told Ibiki.

She didn't know her outburst would boost the morale of the other genin. Ibiki did however.

'Hmm none of them are backing down now. Looks like pinky has leadership qualities.' Ibiki thought to himself.

"Alright you all pass." Ibiki stated.

Not even a moment after, Anko made her flashy appearance through the window. "Alright you pussies. I'm the proctor of the second stage of the exam. The sexy Anko Mitarashi." The snake mistress introduced herself.

Ibiki sighed. "Anko must you always break windows?"

"No but it's fun and how come there are still so many genin left? You're losing your touch Ibiki." Anko voiced.

Ibiki shrugged. "This year's batch has some back bone."

"Well we will see how long that last. Alright you guys meet me at training ground 44 in 30 minutes!" Anko disappeared in a shunshin.

Sakura went to go meet up with Hinata and Tenten. "Hey you guys. I'm gonna go on ahead. I'll see you at the training ground." The pinkette told them.

Both girls nodded and watched Sakura disappeared in a cherry blossom shunshin.

Anko was leaning on the gate eating a stick of dango. She was greeted with the site of a cherry blossom shunshin. Revealing Sakura in front of her.

"Yo Sakura I'm glad you made it this far." Anko greeted her.

"If I didn't make it this far. I would never hear the end of it from you and the others." Sakura replied.

"Damn right you wouldn't. Hey do you have any dango in one of your scrolls?" Anko asked.

"Of course, I have enough food to last me a week. Plus thanks to the seal Kushina taught me. None of it will ever spoil no matter how long it stays in there." Sakura answered as she took out a scroll and released a plate of dango from it.

"Wow that's real helpful." Anko voiced.

The two ate the whole plate and chatted for a bit. It didn't take long for people to start arriving.

Once everybody was there. Anko began explaining the second part of the exams. To Sakura it was a simple task. Just get the scroll you need while protecting the scroll you were given. Then report to the tower after you have a set of both scrolls.

Sakura sensory skills picked a foul chakra. It wasn't as foul of Gaara's bijuu. But it was still foul. She used chakra to sniff out the source. It lead to a woman from kusa. Sakura knew something was not right about her.

'There's no way a genin could have a large amount of reserves without either being an Uzumaki or jinchuuriki. That's means she's not a genin at all. Hmm I don't have time to think about it right now. But if I come across her in the forest I may find out more.' Sakura thought to herself.

After she signed some papers and got her scroll. She went to the entrance she was assigned to.

Anko started the test and everybody made their way inside the forest. The second part of the exam would last for five days.

Sakura did not plan on spending five days here at all.


	4. Chapter 4

The forest of death was a fun place to be in. Sakura had her fair memories of this place because Anko dragged her here a couple times. Surprisingly she has yet to come across a single team. She kept her chakra level hidden so no team would try to ambush her.

Knowing this was a bad time to try to do some minor training. Sakura channeled her earth chakra into her left hand. It still wasn't on the level of her other two affinities. But she had a much better grasp of it now. So she put her hand on the ground. Sakura closed her eyes and focused her chakra into the ground. She did not know what she was expecting to happen. But an interesting thing did occur.

She could feel chakra everywhere. Whether it was in the air or underground. The pinkette felt it and pried with it a bit more. A warm feeling was reaching her senses. That's when an small blue flame came into picture. Sakura could see everybody chakra signature in the forest. It didn't matter if they were on the ground or trees.

Eventually she stopped channeling her chakra. "Well that was interesting. I can sense chakra signatures by focusing my earth chakra through the ground. It almost felt like I was in tune with the earth itself. Hmm I'll have to figure out more about this later." The pinkette said to herself.

Sakura decided to hold off on finding her scroll for now. She would set up camp then get some rest.

Of course that meant setting up traps in case anybody tries anything.

The traps did not take long to set up. Thanks to the numerous of books she read. She learned about a few traps to set on enemies.

Sakura slept by a tree. It was only for a few hours. When she woke up, she looked to see no one had came to set off one of her traps which was disappointing to her.

She continued searching for the earth scroll she needed. Finally a team came into view. And they were from Iwa.

'Oh great now I have to deal with hateful idiots.' Sakura cursed herself.

Soon a four came to a halt. "Well look what we have here? A konoha girl all by herself." One iwa genin said.

"Heh you tree huggers are so foolish. Always acting as if you are better than everybody. If it wasn't for your blasted yondaime. My father would still be alive." Another iwa genin voiced.

"Ok how is that my problem? I wasn't even born when the third great shinobi war happened." Sakura questioned.

"It doesn't matter, you're still a konoha ninja. After we kill you, then we'll advance and find a way to kill the yondaime wife Kushina Uzumaki." The last one said.

Well that did it for Sakura. She actually started laughing. "You idiots think you could kill Kushina? HA that's a best laugh I heard all day. You can't even kill me! But humor me a bit. What kind of scroll do you guys have?"

"It's not like it's gonna matter since you're about to die but we have an earth scroll." One Iwa genin answered.

Soon after his answer, his head rolled off his shoulder. Sakura had her katana Shishio in her hands with blood at the top of it. She named it Shishio when Tenten told her a swordsman always has a name for their sword. Plus Shishio had some interesting qualities about it.

The two other Iwa genin were stunned at how quickly their teammate was killed.

"Y-you bitch! You killed him!" One screamed.

Sakura raised her eyebrow. "No shit, you idiots said you were going to kill me. In the world of the shinobi only the strong survive. And you fools made the mistake of insulting someone I hold dear." The pinkette voiced in a cold tone that sent shivers down the backs of the other two genin.

One of them tried to form so hand seals. But he was too slow as Sakura appeared in front of him with just pure speed. She slashed his throat while moving to the last genin. Unfortunately for him he was too stuck into place to protect himself. He was stabbed in the heart a second later.

Sakura flicked her blade so the blood would come off of it. She sheathed it back up. Then went to go check the corpses. She found a bingo book which is a surprise for genin to have. Along with two scrolls. One of them being the earth scroll she needed. Another one was a scroll with earth jutsu's from Iwa.

"Well this is definitely going to be useful." Sakura said to herself.

The pinkette took off towards the tower. Along the way, she sensed that foul chakra again. It was from that lady from kusa she found earlier. Only this time she was not suppressing it. So she decided to take a small detour.

'If I'm right then that girl had to be Orochimaru in disguise. It's the only explanation. Foul chakra with a heavier scent of snakes than Anko. Not to mention this chakra level is around kage level. It has to be him.' Sakura thought as she followed his chakra signature.

It took 20 minutes to find him. But she did, Orochimaru was tree hopping just like she was.

Sakura quickly threw a kunai at him to get his attention.

Ororchimaru dodged the kunai and turned around to see Sakura.

"Hmm whats a child like you doing pursuing me? Do you even know who I am girl?" Orochimaru asked as he directed his killing intent towards Sakura.

To his surprise, Sakura brushed off his intent then looked at him as if he insulted her.

"First off drop your intent. I've faced intent from Tsunade, Kushina and the fox himself. Do you really think your killing intent would faze me? Second of course I know who you are. You're the legendary S-class ninja Orochimaru who was known for his genius in intellect and ninjutsu. You were given the title sannin along with your former teammates by Hanzo the salamander. You are also known for your usage of the snake summons. Along with making the curse seals." Sakura spoke in admiration.

Orochimaru was expecting her to call him a traitor. "This is new, I was expecting you to call me a traitor and say I was sick in the head." The snake sannin voiced with interest.

Sakura just shrugged. "So what if you're a traitor. That doesn't mean I can't respect your capabilities. Honestly though if you would have never went rogue. You probably couldn't been the fifth hokage after Minato-sama died."

"You have a point, but I no longer care about this pathetic village. It will all be destroyed soon." Orochimaru said.

'So he is here for a reason.' Sakura thought.

"I assume you accomplished what you set out to do here?" Sakura asked.

'Hmm this girl is an odd one. She's showing absolutely no form of fear towards me. Like she's not worried about her well-being at all. Now she's asking if I accomplished what I set out to do? Definitely not your typical genin.' Orochimaru thought to himself.

"Yes for now at least." Orochimaru replied.

"Now what reason could a sannin have to infiltrate konoha just go under cover to participate in the chunin exams. The part of the exams where there will be the least amount of jounin or anbu around. Giving you a way to freely roam to find your target. Said target has to be someone special in order to get your attention. Otherwise you would have never made an appearance in the village. You would've just attacked us while we were unprepared. So either you're after a hyuuga or Sasuke. If I were you while the byakugan is a very useful asset to use. I highly doubt you have any interest in seeing long distances or peoples tenketsu's. So that would leave none other than Sasuke. Who has an unlocked sharingan. Along with the ability to copy almost every ninjutsu or actions. Can see their opponents moves before they make them. Cast high level genjutsu. And has the possibility of evolving into a mangekyo sharingan." Sakura deducted.

Orochimaru chucked in vast amusement. "Ku ku ku, you are quite the perceptive girl. To figure out my target without me even saying anything. Yes I gave Sasuke one of my beloved curse marks." He admitted.

Sakura nodded. "Why if I may ask?"

"I want Sasuke to become the perfect vessel for me. I need his eyes but his body isn't strong enough yet. So I gave him the curse seal of heaven to give him the power he desires. Once he tastes it, it will lead him to only wanting more." Orochimaru answered.

"Meaning it will lead him to coming to you." Sakura finished.

"Exactly then I'll groom him into being the perfect vessel." The snake sannin voiced.

"You know he won't just willingly let you take over his body. He'll probably only try to use you until he feels that he's learned enough from you." The pinkette said.

Orochimaru shrugged. "Possibly so, but I'll just have to get to him before he can make his move."

"Hm oh well not that I care about the uchiha. But you do know that if I see him trying to become a rogue ninja. I will stop him." Sakura spoke in a serious tone.

"That is expected of you. By the way are what clan are you from? It's rare to see someone as young as you speak so comfortably with me. Mind telling me your name?" Orochimaru asked.

Sakura smirked. "I'm not from any clan. I'm a civilian born child. My name is Sakura Haruno."

The snake sannin was wide eyed. 'A civilian born child with a chakra level as high as hers? She can't be no older than 15. Yet she's very smart and fearless. Hmm I should test her.'

"Interesting, well Sakura Haruno how about you face me in a bit of a spar?" Orochimaru offered.

Sakura kept her smirk. "It would be an honor to fight against another member of the legendary sannin."

Not even a second later, she appeared in front of the sannin and punched him. Orochimaru tried to block it but was shocked by the raw power behind it. He was sent through a couple trees.

The pinkette charged at his position. Orochimaru quickly got up to dodge Sakura's strikes.

'She has strength rivaled to Tsunade's!' Orochimaru thought.

The two engaged in a taijutsu battle. Orochimaru had the edge since he had more experience. But Sakura wasn't that far off behind. Fighting Orochimaru reminded her of fighting Tsunade and Kushina.

Orochimaru was really taken by surprised that Sakura was somehow keeping up with him. And her strikes were starting to hurt whenever she hit him at. So she gained some distances then sent a swarm of snakes towards her.

Sakura formed a half ram seal to send out a gust of wind from her mouth. The wind sliced through the snakes as if they were paper.

The snake sannin bit his thumb then summoned a huge brown snake. He thought Sakura might back off seeing his summon.

However Sakura had no intentions of backing down as she took off her shishio from its sheathe. She jumped in the air, channeled chakra through her blade. To cut straight through the snake like it was butter.

Orochimaru hopped off the snake as it dispelled. He took out his kusanagi sword from his mouth.

"Ew how do you keep that in there?" Sakura asked mildly disgusted and intrigued at the same time.

Orochimaru smirked. "You're the first person to ever ask me that. To answer your question, you can learn a lot by experimenting on yourself."

" I guess you can." Sakura replied as she charged straight towards the white snake.

The two blades clashed against each other. Sakura was ever so grateful that she learned kenjustu. Orochimaru was skilled with the kusanagi. But Sakura has faced better.

The snake sannin was able to land a cut on Sakura's arm. While Sakura was cut his waist. They went at it relentlessly. Sakura was having fun. She could feel her blood pulsing through her veins. A savage like grin was on her face the whole battle.

Orochimaru was truly amused by Sakura. He wasn't expecting to face someone of this level when he infiltrated the village. He had have the mind of placing a curse seal on her. But he decided against that. He wanted to see how far could she go.

Suddenly he pulled back. "My my you truly are a cut above the rest. You're definitely a prodigy like me, Itachi and Minato that's for sure. But I'm afraid I'll have to cut our fun short. I've already told this to Anko. But be sure to make sure that old man doesn't cancel the exams. He will regret it if he does."

"You're planning an invasion aren't you." Sakura figured.

"Maybe maybe not only time will tell. I'm looking forward to see you progress in the exams and in the shinobi world Sakura Haruno. I would have put a curse seal on you. But there is no need. We will meet again." Orochimaru started sinking into the ground.

"Oi you snake teme! You owe me a rematch since you're retreating now. I expect you to give me one the next time we meet." Sakura demanded.

"Ku ku ku, very well I look forward to our fight just as much as you do. Until next time Sakura Haruno." The snake sannin completely sunk into the ground.

Sakura couldn't sense his chakra signature anymore. "Damn it I wanted to keep fighting against him. He better not forget our rematch or I'm so coming for his ass!"

Then she sighed. "Looks like he was testing me, he could've beaten me if would have used his full strength. Then again I wasn't completely serious either. Still he probably would've came out on top still. He's a sannin for a reason." She said to herself.

The pinkette headed back into the tree. She healed the cut on her arm. During her trip to the tower. She sensed a few chakra signatures close by. A few of them were familiar.

'Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Sasuke and Sai? Then there are three others who I don't recognize. Hmm well I guess it won't hurt to check it out.' Sakura thought as she headed their way.

It didn't take long for her to arrive. She saw Ino's team hiding. While Sasuke was unconscious and Sai was standing in front of 3 sound ninja. Then she picked up Tenten's team chakra signatures. She observed Lee about to face the one who looked like a mummy. But suddenly Lee fell on his knees holding his ear.

'Wait why is he holding his ear?' She thought then looked at the gauntlet that was on the mummy guy's arm. Sakura channeled chakra into her ears to listen to the conversation. However she instantly winced then grabbed her off ear as blood started coming out of it.

"So he's projecting vibrations through the ear drum that causes pain or disorientation. Not bad, not bad at all well guess I better go down there since nobody else is stepping up." Sakura said as she was healing her ear.

Once it was healed, she disappeared in a cherry blossom shunshin. When she appeared on the battlefield. Everyone who was there was surprised.

"Ugly?" Sai voiced in confusion.

Sakura punched Sai in the face instantly breaking his nose. Sai held in nose in pain.

"Is that how you greet someone who has come to help your sorry ass? Kami if you haven't noticed Sai. I'm far from being ugly. Now are these three giving you a harm time?" Sakura asked in an annoyed tone.

"Y-Yeah only because I'm low on chakra. We had to fi-" Sai was cut off.

"Fight Orochimaru yes I know. I just saw that bastard not too long ago. Look just stay out of my way. I'll heal your nose after I'm done with these three. Keep an eye out on Sasuke in case that seal on his starts acting up." Sakura told him.

Sai did as he was told. He did not want to have anything else broken by her.

"Oh look this chick thinks she can takes us on all by herself." Zaku cockily spike.

"Hm Kin you want to do it?" Dosu asked.

Kin smirked. "Please this will be easy." She replied confidently as she walked up towards Sakura.

"Prepare yourself pinky. You're going to regret this." Kin voiced.

Sakura couldn't believe that this girl was walking up to her. Just making her job that much easier. Sakura disappeared in a blur of speed. Kicking Kin right in the stomach. Sending her straight through a tree.

Everyone who was watching the fight was shocked by what just happened. Tenten was grinning as she and Neji made their appearance known. "Alright kick their ass Sakura!" She yelled.

Shikamaru was just shaking his head while Choji jaw was dropped.

Ino did not want to believe what she just saw. She was in complete denial of it all.

Neji was watching in interest.

Sai was really grateful he decided to not disobey Sakura.

Dosu and Zaku were shocked to core. Sakura on the other hand was already making her move towards Zaku.

Zaku panicked then jumped back to create some space. He shot his arms out and called out his ultimate technique **Zankūkyokuka. **

The attack reduced the area Sakura was last seen to dust.

"Ha I got her!" Zaku bragged.

Suddenly he was sent flying from a round house kick to the head. He landed head first into a nearby tree leaving him unconscious.

Dosu started panicking. "W-Wait please don't kill us. W-we were only sent here to kill Sasuke Uchiha!" He pleaded.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "You were ordered by Orochimaru I assume?" She asked.

Dosu's went wide eyed. "H-How?"

"I just said earlier I ran into snake face before I got here. Now enough questions, you're not killing Sasuke today. It will be a pain in the ass if he died right now. As a matter of fact leave your scroll and get the fuck out of my face. Before I end you." Sakura spoke in icy tone.

That tone sent shivers down Dosu's spine as he left their scroll then went to go pick up Kin and Zaku. He left with them afterwards.

Sakura watched him like a hawk until she felt his chakra signature keep going further. "Alright the rest of you can come out now." She said.

Team 10 made themselves known. Joining the rest of the group.

"Troublesome you've become one troublesome woman Sakura." Shikamaru lazily voiced.

Sakura smirked. "Damn right I have."

"S-Sakura is that really you?" Ino asked.

The pinkette rolled her eyes. "Duh Ino I told you this already."

"What happened to you. How did you get so.." Ino trailed off.

Sakura smirked. "How did I get so badass while you're still taking being a shinobi as a game? Well lots and lots of training plus a little bit of luck. Sorry to disappoint but you haven't seen nothing yet. I'm just getting started. You will never be stronger than me again Ino. Cause I'm aiming for the top." She voiced with determination.

Ino was stunned into silence. The blonde couldn't believe how much her former rival/best friend has changed in only a matter of a few months.

"So wait did you really see Orochimaru?" Tenten asked curiously.

"Yep I saw snake face, got to know him a bit and all that stuff. For a traitor I won't lie that guy is interesting. He could've been the fifth hokage after the fourth died if he never went rogue on the village." Sakura admitted.

Some didn't know what to make of that. However something caught their attention. A dark chakra coming from behind them.

Sasuke was up, purple chakra was swirling around his body. He had black flame marking going across his body with his sharingan activated.

Sakura groaned. "Great, Sai! I told you to keep an eye on him!"

"Sorry but I wasn't expecting him to get up so quickly. He was still asleep while purple chakra started coming out of him." Sai said.

"And you thought it was such a great idea to not say something about it? Kami you're such an idiot." Sakura told him.

Sasuke felt power coursing through his body. He looked up to see both team 10 and Gai there. But his attention was quickly drawn to Sakura. He remembered how she disrespected him and his clan earlier.

"Sakura you bitch, you will pay for disrespecting my clan from earlier." Sasuke threatened.

Sakura scoffed. "Oh boo hoo you act like I'm the only one who has ever had similar thoughts about your cursed clan. You're only feeling all high and mighty because of a power boost from that hickey Orochimaru gave you."

Sasuke growled and charged at mid chunin speed towards the pinkette. To Sakura, he was moving slow. Another benefit from being trained by powerful shinobi.

When Sasuke got close, she easily dodged his attempt to hit her. She didn't even give him the chance to try to attempt his ninjutsu. All in one swift motion. Sakura grabbed the Uchiha's shirt then delivered an strong punch to his jaw shattering it. Next she delivered another punch to his nose. Breaking that as well. She let go of his shirt.

Sasuke backed up and grabbed both his jaw and nose. He was furious as how easily she caused him so much pain.

"Damn Sasuke just got his ass kicked like it was nothing." Shikamaru said.

"That's because Sakura is just that good. She's definitely up one of the strongest genin in the village." Tenten bragged about her friend.

Neji just kept his eyes on the fight. 'So Sakura huh? She may provide a challenge.' He thought to himself.

Lee was also watching the fight while still holding his ear. "Sakura-chan sure is strong."

Sakura was just looking at Sasuke with a bored expression. "Alright I'm bored time to say goodnight again Sasuke."

The pinkette disappeared in a shunshin quickly appeared behind Sasuke. She hit one of his pressure points in his neck to knock him out. He fell to the ground unconscious while the curse seal receded back into his neck.

"Ok now time to seal this thing." Sakura channeled chakra into his finger tips. Blue kanji appearing out of each finger tip.

"Five pronged seal!" She said as she slammed his fingers into Sasuke's seal. Sasuke's jumped feeling the seal being placed on his. But he was still unconscious. It only took a few seconds to apply the seal. "Alright well that's done. We won't have to worry about that now unless someone released the seal." Sakura voiced.

"Umm Sakura what did you do?" Choji asked.

"It's a high rank fuinjutsu seal that seals off his access to that power he just used to put it simply." She answered.

"Who taught you that?" Tenten wondered.

"I'd rather not share that information with everybody. Besides Tenten I'm sure you can figure out who did. I would appreciate if you kept it to yourself you know." Sakura said.

Tenten thought about it then facepalmed herself in realization. 'Duh of course Kushina-sama did. Who else would have?.' The brunette thought to herself. "Oh I got it." She replied.

"Good now I don't care whoever takes that earth scroll because I already have both of mine. Sai makes sure you get Sasuke to the tower. I'll see the rest of you later." Sakura disappeared in a cherry blossom shunshin.

The pinkette made her way to the tower. She knew only 3 days had passed so far. So she would have 2 days to rest at the tower.

It didn't take long to reach it since she didn't encounter any more genin. Once she went inside, she read the massage on the wall. Then opened the scrolls. She realized the scrolls were also summoning scrolls so she put them on the ground. The smoke revealed Kakashi Hatake.

"Oh great why me?" Sakura groaned.

Kakashi was also surprised. "Sakura? I don't remember giving you a form to participate in the exams? I haven't even seen you for a couple months." The copy ninja said.

"Because I've been busy _Kakashi. _I got permission from lord third to participate on my own. Now if you would please tell me the next part of the exam." I told him in a sharp tone.

Kakashi wanted to questioned her more. But he could tell he wasn't about to get any answers. "After the full five days. Another part of the test will be introduced. So just relax in the rooms available." He answered.

Sakura said nothing. She needed to speak with the hokage. Luckily he was inside the tower as well. So she disappeared in a shunshin to his location.

Kakashi was surprised by the cherry blossom shunshin. "Since when did she learn how to use shunshin? She should not have the reserves to do that. Let alone a personal one at that." He asked himself.

Sakura appeared in front of a door. She knocked on the door.

"Come in."

The pinkette opened the door then walked inside. She closed it then walked up a bit to present herself to the hokage.

Hiruzen was a bit thrown off to see Sakura in front of him. "Oh Sakura-Chan I see you finished this part of the exam. Good job but what brings you here?" He asked.

"Lord hokage I request your audience for some important information. I would prefer if it was just me and you here." Sakura spoke in a serious tone.

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes slightly. He looked over to the corner of the room then nodded. A second later his personal anbu guards were gone.

Sakura made sure the room was enforced with a silencing seal so no one can hear from the outside. She also double checked her senses to make sure no one was hiding in the room. Once everything was clear. The pinkette took a deep breath then looked the hokage straight in his eyes.

"Orochimaru has infiltrated the village if you hadn't already known. He's placed a curse seal on Sasuke Uchiha." Sakura told him.

Hiruzen's eyes widen slightly hearing this news. "Explain."

"During my training I learned how to sense chakra signatures pretty well. I was able to learn two things during these exams. First suna sent a jinchuuriki to participate in the exams. Second Orochimaru impersonated a genin from a kusa in order to participate in the second part of the exams. His target was Sasuke so he could mark him with his curse mark. He plans to use Sasuke thirst for power to draw Sasuke to him. Orochimaru wants the sharingan so he chose Sasuke as his next vessel apparently. I didn't encounter him until I caught him fleeing away. I talked to him to see what was he doing here. Luckily I just ended up figuring out his motive myself. Which he confirmed I was right. Then I fought against him for a bit." Sakura explained.

"You what! How could you be so foolish to fight alone with Orochimaru!" Hiruzen scolded in a sharp tone.

Sakura didn't flinch at his tone or his raised voice. "With all due respect lord hokage. A part of me respects Orochimaru before he became a traitor. In my opinion if he would've just stayed loyal. He probably could've been chosen as the fifth hokage once Minato-sama died sealing Kurama. But he let his emotions get in the way. Started doing weird things like human experimentations. Orochimaru is a highly intelligent individual. He could've done something greater with his talents than being ninjutsu obsessed." She responded.

Sarutobi was surprised by her response. He also noted how she didn't seem faze at all by his tone when he yelled at her. "You may be right about him probably being the fifth hokage. But it was still dangerous to take him in alone. You should've fled Sakura. You are only a genin."

Sakura had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the man. "I understand lord hokage. However I wanted to learn his motive for being there. I was pretty confident in my ability to get away from him if he turned out to be way out of my league. I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing. But I kinda caught his attention during our conversation and fight. He even said he wasn't going to place a curse mark on me because he wanted to see how far I could go in the shinobi world. But that stupid snake bastard decided to retreat while the fight was going good." She pouted at her last sentence.

At this point Hiruzen did not know what to make out this situation. 'For Orochimaru to be interested in this civilian girl. She must be something special. Genin don't fight Orochimaru and live to tell about it. Especially when said genin discovers his motive. Guess I'll have to see what young Sakura here in capable of. I don't know what Kushina did but this girl could be a prodigy of her class. I didn't even sense one lie from her words. So she's got to be telling the truth.' The old hokage thought to himself.

He sighed. "Very well what's done is done. I'll just have to have either Kakashi or Kushina seal it up."

"Yeah..I already did that. I placed a five prong seal on it to completely block his access to it." Sakura informed him.

That almost made fall out of his chair. "A genin knowing how to use such high level fuinjutsu? Prove it." He demanded.

The pinkette shrugged and did the seal with her left hand.

Hiruzen didn't say anything.

"Did I mention I believe he's plotting an invasion soon?" Sakura said innocently.

"Ok I give up already. Sakura thanks you for this information. I will mark it as an A-rank mission on your record. You will be fully compensated as well." Hiruzen told her.

Sakura beamed. "Great! Also don't cancel the exams. That was Orochimaru's warning to you."

"It's not like I could if I wanted to. If I did, it wouldn't sit right with the other villages who sent their genin to participate. Konoha would look weak to the other great nations." Hiruzen sighed.

"I thought about too. Also I think we should be wary of suna as well. Gaara is most likely an unstable jinchuuriki. Kurama told me that Shukaku likes to make his host insane by torturing them in their dreams if they try to sleep. I looked in Gaara's eyes the first day of the exam. I could see signs of insomnia. It's possible he can't sleep or Shukaku may try to take over." Sakura informed him.

"I see well then thank you for the information Sakura. I will be sure to inform the other jounin's of what has happened. You are dismissed." Hiruzen said.

Sakura bowed then disappeared in her cherry blossom shunshin.

Hiruzen sighed once again then rubbed the sides of his forehead. "This just brought on a shit load of more paperwork damn it!"

The pinkette decided to find her a room to stay in. Once she did, she placed her stuff in it. Then went to go take a shower.

After that was finished, she came back to her room. Took out one of her scrolls that had food in it. At 2 things of onigiri. Which resulted in her going to sleep for the rest of the day.

Sakura spent the entire next day looking to see what other teams made it so far. She saw that most of the rookie nine made it except for Sai and Sasuke. Tenten's team also made it. She spent time with Hinata and Tenten for awhile. Before she found a secluded place in the forest to train. It was near the tower so she wasn't too far away.

She decided she wanted to mess around with her earth chakra again.

The pinkette channeled her earth chakra and poured it into the ground again.

The feeling was similar to before. She could sense chakra signatures farther than what her normal range allowed her to. The more she concentrated. Sakura was able to feel the minerals and grains in the ground move. She sat in that position for hours. Trying to learn more about this ability. Eventually the earth began to mold into a shape out of the ground. However it took a lot of control to do this at the slow pace it was forming.

"Hmm let me try a jutsu to see if anything feels different." She figured.

She performed **Earth Style: Mud Wall. **The results were pleasing while it was a lot easier to perform than before.

"Woah, guess what i have been doing is some type of exercise for manipulating earth chakra. At least the moulding earth part. I'm not sure how can I sense chakra through the earth. But it is very useful. Hmm I sure hope Kushina is able to convince Lord Jiraya to let me sign the toad contract. In the books I read, it's said that summons are able to use senjutsu. So maybe the toads will have an idea of what's going on. I could always try to sense the nature energy in the air. But maybe after the next part of the exams. Right now I should see if my other earth ninjutsu's are easier to use." Sakura said to herself.

Before she went back to He room for the night. She caught Gaara looking outside at the moon.

The pinkette decided to walk up to him. Gaara felt her presence getting closer to his. So he spoke up. "What do you want?" He asked in a cold tone.

His tone didn't bother Sakura in the slightest. "Nothing much just decided to enjoy the view with you." She smiled.

Gaara didn't respond to her. He couldn't help but notice that he still did not feel the urge to kill her.

"So you are Gaara of the desert right?" Sakura asked.

"Yes I am." He replied in the same cold tone.

"Cool I'm Sakura Haruno. Do you mind if we be friends?" She questioned.

Gaara played the word 'friend' over in his head. "Friend? I don't have any friends?" He answered.

The pinkette tilted her head to the side. "What about your teammates you were with in the test room a few days ago?"

"Temari and Kankuro are my siblings. But they fear me." Gaara said.

"But why? Why would your own siblings be afraid of you?" Sakura wondered. She already knew that his teammates were scared. Their posture gave it away that they were nervous when they were standing next to Gaara. Add to the fact, that they always seem to glance at Gaara with some fear in their eyes.

"Because I am a killing machine. My purpose in life is to kill so my existence doesn't cease to exist. Every person who has come near me would come near me would look at me in fear. The children would run away from me. My sand is an automatic defense so it doesn't let people harm me. My father the kazekage sent assassins to kill me ever since I was 6 years old. My mother named me after the phrase self loving carnage. I was born to kill in this world." Gaara didn't know why he was telling her all of this. But he couldn't help himself.

Sakura was shocked by his story. Honestly it made a tear fall down her eye. Gaara saw her tear and was confused as to why was she crying for him.

"That's just terrible, I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I was told that the life of a jinchuuriki was unpleasant. I've even heard some stories from a teacher of mine. But hearing that you had assassination attempts on your life since you were six. By your own father is just fucking insane. Well Gaara if you don't have any friends. You definitely have one now. I will never let you feel alone again." Sakura told him.

Gaara was caught off guard by her answer. "But Gaara I think it's a purpose for you other than just killing. So what if you're a jinchuuriki? The person who taught me is a jinchuuriki herself and she turned out to be the greatest anbu captain ever in Konoha history." Sakura said.

"You mean Kushina Uzumaki?" Gaara asked.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah I'm real close with her. She's one of the craziest people I've ever met. But I love her to death. She's a jinchuuriki who became loved by her village."

Gaara thought about her words. 'Is there really a purpose for me other than killing?'

"Why do you fight Sakura Haruno?" Gaara asked.

"Just Sakura is fine. I fight to protect those who I hold dear to my heart. I lost my parents a few months ago. I couldn't save them from burning inside of our home. Because I was too weak and didn't know how to save them. I resolved after that to become strong enough to make sure I don't lose any precious to me again. That pain I felt was unbearable. However I know in the life of a shinobi. Death is sometimes unavoidable. But that's why I'm training so hard to make sure I can prevent that from happening if I'm around." Sakura answered him.

Gaara was quiet again. He didn't speak for a few minutes. "Prove it to me. I want you to show me the power to protect. I only know how to love myself. If you can prove to me that your way is a better way. Then I'll try to change my purpose in life."

Sakura perked up. "I'll definitely prove it to you. In fact I hope I get to fight against you at some point. I can tell you are really strong."

"I can say the same about you. The look in your eyes holds power in them. I am interested to see if you can really prove me wrong." Gaara replied.

"Alright so if you want. I can take a look at your seal for you. I also know someone else who could fix it who is better than me with seals." Sakura offered.

Gaara's eyes widened slightly. "You can?" He hesitantly asked.

Sakura nodded with a smile. "Definitely, I can tell you barely get any sleep. Shukaku must really torment you if you try to sleep."

"I'll think about your offer. It was...nice to meet you Sakura." Gaara voiced as he disappeared in a sand shunshin.

Sakura sighed. "So that's Gaara huh? Well he's not as bad as I thought he was going to be. I really hope I can change his mind about his purpose." She said to herself.

The next day was the day the second part of the exam ended. Now every team who made it is standing on a platform. The room they were in hand a spectators area above. It was a giant screen with some rock hands in front of it. The hands were forming a hand sign.

The third hokage was giving his introduction. He explained the meaning behind the exams then was later cut off by Hayate.

"Excuse me lord hokage. But I believe as proctor I should continue on from here." Hayate said.

"Very well Hayate, you may proceed." Hiruzen agreed.

Once Hayate was done explaining how the next part was a preliminary match up. The screen turned on, shuffling through names for the first fight.

**Sasuke Uchiha vs Yoroi Akadō**

Everyone who wasn't participating made their way up the stairs. When I made it up, I saw both Kushina and Tsunade were there looking at me with a knowing look.

"Uh oh." Sakura said.

"Uh oh is right you dummy." Kushina hit Sakura on top of her head.

"What the hell were you thinking going up against Orochimaru?!" Tsunade demanded.

Sakura sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Well I wanted to talk to the guy. It's a good thing I did to. I ended up helping out the village big time."

Kushina sighed. "Yes you did, but that still doesn't mean it was ok for you to chase after Orochimaru on your own. Now we have to worry about him being interested in you."

The pinkette shrugged. "I don't mind, besides snake face owes me a rematch anyways. He even agreed to it." She told them.

Both Kushina and Tsunade facepalmed themselves. Anko who was listening to the conversation didn't know what to make out it all. Sakura _willingly _wants to fight Orochimaru. She didn't know whether to be proud or scared.

"Well at least you did good in sealing Sasuke's curse mark." Kushina acknowledged.

Sakura beamed. "Yep its all thanks to you Kushina-sama."

Kushina didn't like being called sama by Sakura at all. It just felt too weird. But it was necessary for right now. "I didn't do much. I just helped you out if you had any questions. You mainly achieved that on your own Sakura." Kushina said.

"She's right Sakura, you got this far with your own hard work and dedication. I can't wait to see how you perform in your match." Tsunade added.

Sakura blushed at their praise. It always meant a lot to her when those two acknowledged her strength. "Thanks im gonna go over to Hinata and Tenten now." She walked over to her friends.

Tsunade sighed. "Just what are we going to do with her. To fight Orochimaru one and one as a genin. To be able to live to tell about it is mind boggling."

"Hehe it just means that Sakura is taking after me. You know how reckless she can be sometimes. But I am proud of her either way." Kushina smiled.

Tsunade couldn't help but smile herself. "Yeah yeah I am too."

Sakura stood next to Hinata. "Yo Hinata, are you excited for your fight?"

"Eh not really, you know I'm the fighting type Sakura." Hinata replied.

"You can still kick ass when you're are serious though." Sakura said.

"I agree with that." Kiba voiced.

Shino nodded in agreement.

Hinata just blushed. "Y-you guys are embarrassing me." She whined.

Sakura laughed at her. Then she noticed Sasuke just won his fight. Yoroi was taken away by the medics. When Sasuke made his way up, he shot Sakura an angry glare.

**Zaku Abumi vs Shino Aburame**

"Is there a problem Sasuke?" She asked.

He walked up to Sakura with his sharingan activated. All of the higher ranking ninja were watching to see what would happen.

"Yeah you're my problem. You got involved with something you shouldn't have." He said.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "What's you're mad I sealed away you're little power up? It still wouldn't help you beat me so suck it up already." She told him.

He pointed his finger in her face. "Learn your place! You're nothing but a clan-less orphan. You should be groveling at my feet. That's what your whore of a mother used to do when she was still alive. It was probably the only thing she was useful for. Considering you were probably a mistake." Sasuke spat out venomously.

That particular comment pissed off quite a few people. The jounin had their eyes narrowed at Sasuke except for Kakashi. Tsunade and Kushina were using all of their will power to restrain themselves from ending Sasuke's existence. Ino was shocked at hearing about Sakura's parents. Hinata had her byakugan activated, looking at Sasuke with anger. Tenten had a kunai in her hand ready to send it straight to Sasuke's head.

All Sakura did was look at him with a bored expression. "If thought that would make me start crying then think about Uchiha." She then grabbed his finger. Crushed it in her hand, snapping it in multiple areas.

Sasuke gasped in pain. He snatched away his hand.

"Sakura! That's not how you treat your teammate. I am very disappointed in you!" Kakashi scolded her in anger.

That made the other jounins in the room look at Kakashi as if he had two heads.

Sakura just scoffed. "As if I give a flying fuck! About your opinion of me. You go straight to hell for all that I care Hatake. Go fuck your precious Uchiha in the ass while your at it."

That had Kiba, Anko, Tsunade, Kushina, Choji, Shikamaru, Tenten and Hinata all laughing. Even Asuma and Hiruzen were chuckling.

Kakashi just disappeared with Sasuke in a shunshin.

"How unyouthful of Kakashi." Gai said.

"Seriously did he not hear what Sasuke said to Sakura? He must really favor that Uchiha over his other students." Kurenai voiced.

"Sorry to break it to you Kurenai-sensei. But he's no longer my sensei. He hasn't been for two months now. He neglected me purposely for the first few months on team 7. But I found some other people to teach me." Sakura informed her.

"I see, good for you then." Kurenai said.

Shino won his fight by making Zaku implode his arms with chakra by plugging the holes in his hands with bugs.

**Ino Yamanaka vs Choji Akimichi - Winnner: Choji**

**Kankuro vs Misumi Tsurugi - Winner: Kankuro**

**Tenten vs Temari - Winner: Temari**

**Shikamaru Nara vs Kin Tsuchi - Winner: Shikamaru**

**Kiba Inuzuka vs Sai - Winner: Sai **

**Hinata Hyuga vs Neji Hyuga**

The fight started off pretty evenly. Hinata was able to match up to Neji.

Neji was surprised by how long Hinata was holding out. Eventually 10 mins had passed, Neji hand landed more hits on Hinata. He even gave her a hard strike to her chest.

Sakura was watching the fight becoming more pissed off by the second.

Then she heard Hinata say that Neji is the one who is in pain. Neji was berating Hinata for being weak. But Hinata kept talking. It caused the older Hyuga to snap as he charged towards Hinata.

All of the jounin were about to move in to restrain him. However it was no need as Sakura appeared in front Neji then gave him a hard punch to his nose. The brunet Hyuga fell onto the ground holding his nose in pain.

"Y-You broke my nose!" Neji yelled in anger.

"The match was over. You were trying to kill my friend. I don't care what your issues are. That doesn't give you the right to try to kill Hinata. You must be stupid if you think you would've gotten away with it. Don't be foolish Neji. You are a branch member of the Hyuga. The main branch would have killed you if you killed Hinata." Sakura told him.

Neji lost his anger hearing her words. He said nothing as he got up to walk back into the spectators area.

Sakura turned around to go check on Hinata. Hinata was on the ground breathing heavy. The pinkette perform the diagnostic jutsu.

'Hmm her injuries are severe but not life threatening. Good thing he didn't put more force into the strike on her chest. Otherwise Hinata would have been in cardiac arrest.' She thought as she began healing Hinata.

Those above were watching in interest. "She's a med nin?" Asuma said out loud.

"Seems like it, I'm grateful that she's helping Hinata." Kurenai voiced.

"Actually she's not a med nin." Anko spoke up.

"She's not?" Kurenai asked.

"Nope, the brat is more than a simple med nin. But I don't wanna spoil anymore. You'll see what I mean when she fights." Anko answered.

Asuma and Kurenai were confused by her words. While Gai was intrigued. He couldn't figure out what is was about Sakura that was sticking out to him.

Tsunade was watching Sakura heal Hinata with a proud smirk.

Hinata was eventually fully healed. "Thank you Sakura." The blunette said.

The pinkette waved her off and led her back to the spectators area. "Don't worry about it. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't heal you after that?" She voiced.

**Gaara vs Dosu**

That match ended quickly and brutally. Dosu was trying to bait Gaara but he was quickly silenced by the sand that encased him into a cocoon.

"You're in my way." Gaara said in a cold tone then sent shivers down some of the gennin's neck.

He closed his palm, which ended up resulting in Dosu being crushed. Blood splattered onto the ground.

"W-Winner Gaara" Hayate announced.

Sakura sighed, she knew it was going to be tough trying to convince Gaara to change his path in life. However she didn't get much time to wander as the blood was quickly washed away and her name appeared on the screen.

**Sakura Haruno vs Rock Lee**

"Of course Sakura's match would be last." Kushina said with a small smile.

"Well save the best for last I guess." Tsunade added.

Alright Lee go give it everything you got! Your opponent is a youthful one. So make sure your youthfulness burns brighter than the sun itself!" Gai yelled.

"Hai Gai-sensei!" Lee has fire burning in his eyes. As he made his way to the platform.

Sakura was shaking. Tenten and Hinata were concerned.

Kushina had an raised eyebrow but quickly formed a smirk.

"Are you ok Sakura?" Tenten asked.

Sakura didn't say anything until a few seconds later. She pumped both of her arms into the air. "Yosha! I get to fight a strong opponent! Kami-sama herself has once again blessed my undeserving soul! I'll make sure to give her a show!" She yelled out as he eyes were brimming with excitement. A smirk appeared on her face letting everyone who saw her know that she was ready.

She jumped over the ledge and landed on the ground. She made eye contact with Lee while keeping her smirk.

"I am glad you think highly of my skills Sakura-chan." Lee said.

"Before we start, don't you dare think I didn't notice you bastard!" Sakura yelled.

Lee had a confused look on his face. "Come again?"

"You're using weights you dumbass! Don't you dare think of holding back against me. Cause I sure as hell won't hold back against you. It's disrespectful to me Lee as a shinobi if you hold back against me because I'm a girl." Sakura told him.

"Oh! I would never disrespect you like that Sakura-chan! I am quite surprised you noticed them to be honest. But as you wish I will not hold back against you." Lee told her as he took off his weights. He held them in the air then dropped them. Causing the ground to crack from how much weight he had.

Sakura was impressed. "Damn well guess I have to not use my gravity seal. I wanna see who is faster between me and you." The pinkette lifted her shirt showing her toned stomach. Making all of the male genin except Gaara and Shino blush. She bit her thumb, drawing blood from it. Sakura swiped her finger on the seal on her stomach. She had two but her chakra expansion seal isn't visible unless she makes it visible.

She made a half ram sign which made the seal glow blue. The glow only lasted a few seconds. "Ok all done." She said.

Sakura didn't release all the restrictions of her gravity seal. Normally her seal was up to level 6. She didn't adjust it in her fight with Orochimaru because Orochimaru wasn't using his full speed when they fought. So now she's on level 3. Sakura didn't want to be a hypocrite and hold back against Lee. But she wanted to test his speed. If he proved to be faster than her current speed then she will release her full speed.

Lee and Sakura both got into their respective stances. Gai was watching this fight like a hawk. He didn't want to miss anything. Same could be said for everybody else. Everyone besides Kushina and Tsunade were wondering just how strong Sakura is.

When the match started, both Lee and Sakura threw shuriken at one another. When their weapons collided. Both charged at each other in blurring speed. Lee threw the fist punch which was dodge by Sakura. Who in turn tried to deliver a sweeping kick to Lee.

Lee jumped in the air, he spun to give add force to the kick he aimed at Sakura. To his surprise, Sakura blocked it with her forearm. He quickly backed up to gain some distance.

Sakura however wasn't about to let him get away. She ran straight at him at high chunin speed. The pinkette started attacking her with her taijutsu style.

Lee engaged her, he would not back down from a fight involving his specialty. The two were fighting head on. Sakura throwing punches at Lee. The bowl cut genin doing his best to block her attacks. His arms were starting to sting from the force behind her attack.

Suddenly he disappeared in a blur of speed to get behind her. Sakura was caught off guard. Unfortunately that led to her taking a roundhouse kick to face.

She staggered for a second before immediately realizing that Lee was circling around her in pure speed.

Most of the spectators were amused by what was happening.

"Hey Gai wasn't your student dead last in the academy when he graduated?" Asuma asked.

"That's right Asuma." Gai answered.

"Damn you sure trained him hard." Asuma replied.

"Why are they only using taijutsu though?" Kurenai wondered.

"That's because Lee can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu. So his specialty is taijutsu. Sakura on the other hand I don't really know myself. I have to admit so far she's showing to be a remarkable ninja. She's keeping up with Lee's speed. I can tell her hits are hurting Lee more than Lee's is hurting hers." Gai responded.

Asuma whistled. "That girl is something else."

Kushina was smirking at the battle. Sakura was doing well so far. She had no doubt that Sakura was going to win this. But a tiny part of her wondered if Gai was crazy enough to teach Lee the 8 inner gates.

Little did she know, Tsunade was having similar thoughts. She was somewhat worried because she didn't know if Sakura could handle that yet.

Lee decided to make his move. He appeared in front of Sakura to deliver a kick to Sakura's chin. She was thrown in the air. Lee kept kicking her higher and higher in the air. His bandages started unraveling from his wrist.

Gai started silently praying. 'To think he would have to use this. You've got to finish this here and now Lee. The lotus puts an enormous strain on the body.

Lee felt the pain in his body for a brief second causing him to close his eyes. Sakura capitalized on that second.

The bandages wrapped around her body. With Lee taking hold of her, spinning head first into the ground. He quickly moved out of the way once he was close enough. Letting Sakura slam head first into the ground.

An explosion of dust flew into the air as the ground cracked. When the dust cleared it revealed a fatigued Lee who was on the ground trying to catch his breath.

Sakura was on the ground not moving a muscle. Kushina and Tsunade were a bit worried. Almost everyone assumed the match was over. Until Sakura's body exploded. Catching Lee by surprised. He was forced to move his strained body to avoid most of the blast. In the end he ended up getting some burns. But nothing too severe.

"Wow Lee I gotta admit that would've definitely hurt if I taken that head on. Although it wouldn't have been enough to keep me down. Still would've hurt like a bitch." Sakura voiced was heated.

Everyone looked up to see the pinkette levitating in the air as it was an every day thing. Sakura has her arms crossed with a small smile on her face.

This particular action surprised mostly everybody by surprise. Kushina and Tsunade were just glad that she didn't get caught in the rest of that attack. Sakura flying was new to them, Anko or Ibiki. However everyone else had was different.

"S-She can fly?" Kurenai asked.

"Apparently so." Gai said in an amused tone.

"Woah forehead can fly." Ino was amazed.

"Like I said, she's a troublesome woman." Shikamaru said.

Hinata and Tenten were also shocked. Sakura never told them that she could fly.

"Did you know she could do this?" Tenten asked.

"No this is my first time seeing this." Hinata answered.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Jerk could've at least told us."

Hinata giggled. "You know Sakura, always full of surprises. I doubt this is the only thing she hasn't shown us."

"You're probably right about that." Tenten mused.

"Well I'll be damned. Pinky can fly." Kankuro voiced.

"That is impressive." Temari admitted.

Neji and Shino didn't say nothing. They just kept watching to see what would happen.

Gaara also didn't say anything. He was becoming more curious about Sakura.

'Well I can understand why Orochimaru is interested in her now. She may be the prodigy of the decade.' The hokage thought.

Asuma was amazed. "She's using wind chakra..." he muttered.

Gai and Kurenai snapped their heads at him.

"How could she have such control over her element as such a young age. Her chakra control must be incredible." Kurenai said.

"I agree, her reserves also must be much larger than I originally assumed. To be able to do such a thing must be require a decent amount of chakra." Gai assumed.

Lee was just staring in awe. Sakura brought herself down to the ground smirking at Lee.

"Y-You can fly?!" Lee asked.

"Yep I learned it about a month ago. But that's not important. Right now we have a fight to continue. Oi proctor-san are solider pills against the rules?" Sakura asked.

"No they are not. They can be considered as a weapon for shinobi." Hayate answered.

"Good." Sakura then reached into her pouch to take out a small pill bottle. She took out a solider pill then tossed it to Lee, who in turn caught it. "Eat that it's a solider pill, it'll give you some energy." The pinkette nonchalantly told him.

"You're giving your opponent a solider pill? But why? Why not take clear advantage that you have?" Lee asked confused.

Sakura put a hand of her hip. "Because I want a good fight. Yes I know it's not something a chunin would do. To be honest I don't give a damn. Some stupid ass rank isn't going to stop me from making myself known to the world. Other villagers will learn to fear the name Sakura Haruno." She finished with a confident smirk.

Lee was once again in awe of Sakura. "You truly are a remarkable shinobi Sakura-Chan." He felt his stamina return once he ate the pill.

"Such a youthful shinobi she is." Gai said.

"She had a clear advantage. That wasn't a smart idea." Kakashi noted.

"Maybe not but it still shows her character." Gai retorted.

Lee and Sakura went at it again. Fist meeting blow for blow, kick for kick. Lee sent a kick to Sakura's head which she countered with her own. Both of their legs collided causing a mini shockwave from the impact.

They were in a stalemate. Neither could land the crushing blow. Until Sakura caught Lee with a right hook to the jaw. Causing the bowl cut genin to gain some distance.

Lee was slightly out of breath. He had never faced an opponent as strong as Sakura before. Normally he was used to being the stronger one of his opponents.

"Sakura-chan what taijutsu style do you use?" Lee asked.

"It's not a particular style, it's more of a mixture of how I learned how to fight. Like a brawler if you will but I added some moves I read from taijutsu scrolls." Sakura answered.

"How long have you been training?" Lee wondered.

"A few months, I was nothing but a weak shinobi who could barely beat an academy student just a few months ago. But I was told I had an unnatural growth rate. Also can adapted fairly quickly." Sakura shrugged.

"I see, well Sakura I'm here to tell you that from here on out I'm going all out. The leaf village's lotus blooms twice." Lee said.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. 'Where have I heard that term before? Hmm oh shit no way!' She internally gasped.

"You can use the 8 inner gates?!" Sakura freaked out.

Lee smirked. "I'm surprised you picked that up so quickly.

Up in the stands, the spectators were truly entertained by this match.

"Gai you didn't seriously teach that boy how to unlock the 8 inner gates did you?" Kakashi questioned.

"Yes I did Kakashi because unlike you I want my students to succeed the best way possible." Gai said.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. Tsunade and Kushina were now worried.

"Damn it why does this brat have to know the 8 inner gates?" Tsunade groaned.

"Who knows? But I'm still putting my faith in Sakura. The hell with the gates, she will come out of this on top somehow." Kushina tried to reassure Tsunade along with herself.

"Why do I feel like they are about to become more troublesome." Shikamaru said lazily.

"Probably because they are." Asuma replied.

Lee's arms formed an 'X' in front of his face. An energy started to engulf his body in a pillar. Causing pieces of the ground to crack and rise in the air. Chakra started to come out of his body. As his skin was turning red. His black pupils were gone. Veins coming out of his forehead.

Sakura had to hand it to Lee. He was definitely one for surprises. She was glad she gave him that solider pill. Now the pinkette was about to really enjoy the thrill of battle. As she felt a smirk come onto her face. With her blood boiling from the excitement. "To think you really know how to use the 8 inner gates is nothing short of amazing Lee." Sakura admired.

"I want to say this match is over. But Sakura doesn't look worried in the slightest." Gai said to himself. He didn't know what the pinkette had in store.

Hinata looked over to Tenten. "Any ideas on how she can win?" She asked.

Tenten shook her head. "Nope not the slightest of clues."

'To think Lee had such strength this whole time.' Neji thought to himself.

"Well I guess I can't hold back anymore either. I really didn't want to use this here. It's not complete. I also don't want to win using ninjutsu or genjutsu. This was the ultimate test of my taijutsu. I truly thank you for that Lee." Sakura informed him.

'Great just great, now I have to reveal this. I was hoping to save it to show it off later. Kushina and Tsunade are gonna be all up my ass on why didn't I show them this.' She mentally groaned.

Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was focusing her chakra into a single point in her stomach. During her training, Sakura was able to discover an interesting ability on accident while she was meditating.

With Kurama's purified chakra being well mixed in with her body. It allowed her to do some interesting things. Things that she normally would've never thought someone like her could actually do.

She clenched her fist. "Haaaaaaaa!"

Chakra started to produce wildly from her body. The chakra she was building up in her stomach was the key to releasing her power. Sakura no longer have any restrictions holding her back.

The energy she was releasing was forcing people to look away from the wind she was generating. An blue greenish aura started to surround her form. Veins started popping out of her forehead. Her long pink hair was rising in the air. Sakura's eyes were glowing a brighter version of her normal emerald eyes.

The ground was cracking in multiple areas. It was truly astonishing to see just how much energy she was putting out. The pinkette's muscles also bulked up a bit. With the aura surrounded her completely. Sakura gave out one last battle cry.

"**CCCHHHHAAA**!" 

An explosion happened after that. Once the dust cleared, most of the spectators were baffled at what they were seeing.

Sakura was encased in a blue-green aura. It was a sparkling aura with mini streaks of electricity going through it. The reason why Sakura calls this form incomplete is because she knows it can be taken up a level. And she wasn't all the way used to fighting with it yet. Her hair was flowing through the wind she was causing. The pinkette's glowing emerald eyes were narrowed at Lee. But she was smirking at him.

Lee was yet again in awe of his opponent. He definitely wasn't the only one.

All of the spectators were shocked by this development. Asuma cigarette was on the ground. Kurenai was amazed. Kakashi didn't know what to make of it. Gai was absolutely worried for Lee.

The genin were shocked to the core. None of them ever witnessing anything like this.

Gaara was fully invested into Sakura now. He never assumed for her to be this strong.

Kushina and Tsunade were surprised as well as the others.

"Did you know she could do this?" Tsunade asked.

"No I didn't and I'm definitely kicking her ass for hiding something so cool from me!" Kushina voiced.

"Definitely the prodigy of the decade. Sakura Haruno is truly an unique shinobi." Hiruzen commented.

Lee decided to quickly open the 4th gate before Sakura attacked. Once he did that he charged at her with a level of speed only the elite shinobi could follow. Kakashi, Gai, Hiruzen, Kushina and Tsunade.

Sakura met him half way as the two began their clash of taijutsu. Lee bounced from wall to wall. While Sakura was flying in the air. Lee kept throwing fast punch after punch. But Sakura countered them every time with ease.

Eventually she got tired of playing defense so she started attacking Lee without holding back much of her strength. She delivered a bone crushing punch to his ribs. Shattering 2 of them. Then she kicked him in the back sending him straight to the ground like a bullet.

Lee felt the pain of her hits and threw up some blood. He quickly got up to continue his attack.

Sakura blocked every single strike he aimed at her. Lee was amazed at how outclassed he was.

The pinkette dodged another one of his attacks to knee him in the stomach. Then gave a strong chop to his back. Lee disappeared in blinding speeds to kick Sakura in her stomach. He sent her to the wall. Making her go right through it.

However Sakura quickly recovered get him back. The two continued their high speed taijutsu bout in mid air. Lee was bouncing all over the place. Sakura knew it was only a matter of time before she ran out of steam.

The same could be said for Lee as he delivered a shattering punch to her stomach. He had his bandage wrapped around her waist so he could pull her back towards him.

He released the fifth gate in doing so. Sakura didn't intend on letting him finish her off like this. So when Lee pulled her back up. She maneuvered herself around Lee. This caught Lee by surprise as he quickly turned around. But it was too late.

Sakura had charged her chakra into her right fist. The look she was giving Lee let him know that this was the end.

"SSSSSHHHHHAAAAANNNNNAAAARRRRROOOOO!" She roared as she delivered an ground breaking attack to Lee's stomach. Sending him straight to the ground. Creating a huge dust storm.

Everyone covered their eyes until the dust was cleared. When the look to see the results. They saw an unconscious Lee in a huge hole in the ground.

"D-Damn that was intense." Kiba croaked.

"Arf!" Akamaru barked in agreement.

"It would do well for you to never get on her bad side Kiba." Shino told him.

"H-Hey I'm not an idiot you don't have to tell me. I like being alive. So of course I'm gonna try to stay on her good side." Kiba retorted.

"So where's forehead?" Ino asked.

The spectators looked in the air to see Sakura still levitating in the air with her aura surrounding her.

Sakura was breathing a bit heavy. She lowered herself to the ground. When she looked at Lee and saw he was down for the count. Then she looked up at the audience to see most of them had their jaws dropped.

She smirked as she ran her left hand through her hair. While her right hand was on her hip.

Hayate coughed. "Winner Sakura Haruno."

Sakura proudly raised her left fist in the air with the biggest smirk of her face. "YOSHA!" She cried out in joy with excitement still laced into her voice. The aura around her disappeared.

No one but Kushina and Tsunade were clapping for her. Everyone else was just too stunned at what just happened. Not that Sakura minded as she went to go heal Lee.

When she started healing him. She went over his injuries. "Broken collar bone, 4 ribs shattered, torn muscles and just pure exhaustion to top it all off. You really pushed my taijutsu to the test Lee."

Gai appeared next to her. Sakura smiled at him. "Gai-sensei!"

The bushy brow jounin was surprised by her excitement. "Hello there Sakura, thank you for healing my student and also giving him the best fight he's ever had." Gai said.

Sakura waved him off. "Don't worry about it, I'm glad I was able to fight a strong opponent like him. But do you think you could teach me about the 8 inner gates one day?" Sakura asked.

Gai went wide eyed hearing her question. "I'm afraid not, the 8 inner gates are a dangerous move. It's only to be used as a last resort." He informed her.

"I'm not asking you to teach me how to perform it. I'm asking you to teach me about it. It will be real helpful to my incomplete form you just witness me use." Sakura corrected him.

Gai thought about her words. "Hmm fine, come find me one of these days and I'll teach you about it Sakura." He agreed.

Sakura beamed at him. "Thank you Gai-sensei."

It didn't take long for her to finish healing his broken and shattered bones. "Alright he's for the most part healed. He's just exhausted, he will most likely feel very sore from the strain he put on his body. Also he should give his ribs more time to naturally heal before he starts overworking himself." Sakura said.

Gai picked up Lee. He carried him on his shoulder. "Thank you once again Sakura." Gai said with respect in his voice. He went to go take Lee to the infirmary.

"That concludes the preliminary rounds. Those of you who have won your matches. Please come down here for further details. The rest of you are free to go." Hayate said.

The finalist came down to the platform. The hokage congratulated them and informed them that the finals will take place a month from now. Because the daimyos and other important people have to make their way here. They were told to pick a number from a box to determine the finals match up.

Neji Hyuga vs Sasuke Uchiha

Shino Aburame vs Kankuro

Choji Akimichi vs Sai

Temari vs Shikamaru Nara

Sakura Haruno vs Gaara

Sakura and Gaara made eye contact with each other. Neither one of them backing down.

"I can't believe we actually get to fight each other in the finals Gaara! I'm so looking forward to it!" Sakura said excitingly.

Gaara didn't know how to exactly react. "I am also looking forward to it. You have shown me that you are indeed strong Sakura."

Sakura blushed a bit. She decided to give Gaara a kiss on the cheek. Which made the red head go wide eyed. Temari and Kankuro thought Sakura had a death wish.

They assumed Gaara was about to kill her. But was shocked when he just stood there.

Gaara touched his cheek. "Why did you do that?" He asked with confusion mixed with his cold tone.

"Because I wanted to that's why. Also make sure you give me a good fight." Sakura leaned into his ear. "Because in definitely going to not disappoint and fixed that seal of yours." She whispered to him.

Gaara was surprised that she was still willing to fix his seal. "Very well then Sakura." He replied.

Sakura winked at him then disappeared in a cherry blossom shunshin.


	5. Chapter 5

A couple days had passed since the preliminaries. Sakura knew she needs a game plan fighting Gaara. Luckily for her, she was good at tactics. After her fight against Lee. Kushina demanded to know why didn't Sakura tell her about her secret technique. The red head claimed it was unfair to hide such things from her.

Sakura couldn't help but to laugh at her. She's truly loved Kushina. As of right now, the pinkette was walking around the village.

Unfortunately or fortunately when she walked passed the hot springs. She heard someone giggling. So after finding the source of said giggling. It was a confusion if she should be pissed, laughing her ass off or just being happy.

Sakura found none other than Jiraiya the toad sage. According to Tsunade and Kushina, this was a hobby of his. Peeking on women to use as inspiration for his stories. At first she found it disturbing. Although the pinkette was also told that every shinobi has their vices.

'Hmm think I should try to sneak up on him Inner? He might already know I'm here.' She asked.

'**Eh go for it just for the hell of it all.' **Inner replied.

Once that was agreed upon. Sakura made sure her chakra level was brought down to civilian level. She took silent steps towards him. This trick was taught to her by Kushina. Said that most anbu in assassination knows how to do this.

As soon as she was close enough. She learnt to his ear. "What are you doing you perverted fool." Sakura said in Tsunade fashion.

Surprisingly Jiraiya jumped and turned around in fear because he thought that Tsunade actually was behind him. Then he saw it was Sakura. "Jeez kid you almost gave me a heart attack." The toad sannin spoke.

"Well I wouldn't have had to if you weren't so obvious in your peeking." Sakura countered

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you gonna try to beat me up for being a pervert?" He asked.

Sakura shrugged. "To each their own. It's obvious that you're proud of being a pervert. It's odd to me but I've heard that's where you get inspiration for your books. It's your bread winner in a way. As long as you don't peek on me. I don't really care if you do." She answered.

Jiraiya looked at her with interest. "Well you sure are different from the rest. What's your name kid?"

"Sakura Haruno."

"Oh so you're the kid that beat Gai's student even when he used the 8 inner gates. Gotta say kid, that was one hell of a match." Jiraiya commended. That's when Jiraiya remembered something. "You're Kushina's and Tsunade's brat aren't you?"

Sakura glared at him. "I would appreciate if you didn't call me a brat. Yes Tsuna is like a surrogate mother to me. Kushina is my most important person." She stated.

"Well that's cute, so what could I do for you? I know you didn't just bother me for no reason." Jiraiya questioned.

"Well Kushina was gonna ask you to let me sign the toad contract. I was actually hoping you would let me. I want to sign the toad, slug and snake contracts." Sakura replied.

"Why all 3?"

"Because why not? I want the power to protect those I hold dear. Being the summoned of three contacts will help me do that." The pinkette said.

"Hmm have you signed one yet?" Jiraiya asked.

"No both Tsunade and Anko told me I could sign the scrolls to the slug and snake summons. But since Kushina has the toad summon. I wanted that to be the first one I sign." She answered.

Jiraiya thought about it before coming to a decision. "Fine I'll let you sign the scroll. You'll have to prove yourself once you figure out how to summon the boss summon."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Alright spill it, that was way too easy. This is my first time meeting you. And you're just letting me sign it just like that? Did Kushina already tell you about this?"

Jiraiya laughed. "Wow she was right, you are one perceptive gaki. But yes Kushina already told me about you. I just wanted to hear your answer from you yourself. Come on I'll tell you a bit about myself. We need to find an open area to practice summoning." He said as he walked away.

The pinkette just sighed. "She's always looking out for me. Can't say I don't appreciate it. Oh well." She followed the toad sage.

The two found an open space. Jiraiya unraveled the scroll on his back. Sakura looked at the names who signed the scroll. It was only three names. But each person was legendary shinobi.

A smirk appeared on her face. "Jiraiya-sama, I hope you know that I'm going to be the next legendary ninja to sign this contact." She told him.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Think you can achieve the same level of greatness that I, Minato and Kushina did?" He asked curiously.

"Well I don't have a choice if I want to stand side by side with Kushina. For right now, she's so far ahead of me. But I will reach her level one day. I already took on Orochimaru. He may haven't been using his full power but neither was I. I'm only going to continue to get stronger. I will face all of my obstacles head on. After all I don't call myself fearless for nothing." She replied.

Jiraiya snorted. "I heard about your run in with him. Be careful, since he has his eye on you. There's no telling what he will try."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Like I care what snake face has planned for me. He'll have to think twice before he even thinks of attempting anything on me. And if he does, Orochimaru will have Kushina and Tsunade all over his pale skin ass."

Jiraiya just laughed while Sakura bit her thumb and began signing her name with her blood. Once she was done. She turned around to perform her first summon.

"Do you know the hand seals?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah Tsunade taught them to me." She answered.

Sakura did the hand signs, boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram while gathering the precise amount of chakra she believes is needed.

The pinkette slammed her hand to the ground and called out **Summoning****Jutsu.**

A black seal appeared on the ground with a cloud of smoke coming out of it. The smoke revealed an small orange and purple toad with yellow eyes.

"Yo! I'm Gamachiki got any snacks?" Gamakichi asked.

"Sure I got some onigiri and dango I can give you." Sakura offered.

"Aw you're the best. Hey pinky what's your name?" Gamakichi wondered.

"Sakura, Sakura Haruno I just summoned you here as my first summon ever." Sakura answered.

"I'm impressed kid, it takes quite the skill to summon a toad like Gamakichi on your first try." Jiraiya commended.

"Hm we'll be ready to fall on your ass because I'm about to summon the boss!" Sakura declared.

Jiraiya went wide eyed. "Hey kid wait a second!" He tried to stop her.

But it was two late. Sakura went through the hand signs again then gathered three times the amount of chakra she used to summon Gamakichi. A huge cloud of smoke appeared when she slammed her hand on the ground.

The pinkette found herself standing on top of a red giant toad with a huge tantō.

"What the? Jiraiya you idiot! Why did you summon me?" Gamabunta yelled.

"Uh actually he didn't I did." Sakura corrected him.

Gamabunta looked up to see Sakura standing on his head. "And just who the hell are you kid?" He questioned.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, I'm the newest summoner of the toads." Sakura introduced herself.

Gamabunta started laughing. "Yeah right like a brat like you has enough chakra to summon me!" He kept laughing.

Sakura got pissed quickly. She enhanced her foot with chakra to stomp on Gamabunta' head.

"Ow! Why the hell did you do that?!" The toad boss yelled.

"Because you were laughing at me you dumb toad! Why would I have to lie about summoning you?" Sakura questioned still pissed off.

"She's right pops, I saw it with my own eyes." Gamakichi jumped in.

"Gamakichi? What are you doing her?" Gamabunta asked.

"Sakura here summoned me before she summoned you. She's pretty cool she even offered me some snacks." Gamakichi explained.

"I see, well then Sakura. It seems you weren't lying after all. I have to say I'm impressed a brat like you could summon me. I will recognize you as apart of the family." Gamabunta said.

Sakura grinned happily. "Thanks boss! I'm sure I'll be needing your assistance soon enough."

"Hmph fine by me, Gamakichi stay here for awhile with Sakura. You probably will become her main summon once your body grows." Gamabunta said.

"You got it pops." Gamakichi replied.

"Hey boss, do you think I could come to the land of the toads? I wanna meet some of the other toads." Sakura asked.

"Hmm I don't see why not. Just have either Gamakichi or Jiraiya reverse summon you there." He answered.

"Thanks Bunta!" Sakura thanked him.

Gamabunta smirked. "Yeah sure whatever kid." He dispelled himself afterwards.

Jiraiya made his presence known again. "To think you would actually summon Bunta is astounding." He voiced.

Sakura looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Why did you go hide from him?" She asked.

"I owe him some sake. I didn't want him to use his tongue to drill my head into the ground." Jiraiya admitted.

"Yeah pops did bring that up a couple days ago. If I were you, I would get that sake to him quick before he really let you have it." Gamakichi told him.

"Thanks for the warning. By the way kid, what was that blue or green, sparkling, electrical chakra you were using in your fight?" Jiraiya asked.

"Please don't go telling everybody about this. It's only a select few people who I'm willing to tell this to." Sakura warned him while checking to see if any unknown chakra signatures were around.

"You have my word as a sannin." Jiraiya stated.

Sakura sighed. "Good, what you saw was my limit breaker."

"Limit breaker?" The toad sage repeated.

"Yeah did Kushina tell you about Kurama's chakra or the seals she put on me?" She asked.

"Yeah." Jiraiya said.

"Well basically from what I came up with is that. My reserves must've been a lot smaller than I thought before I met Kushina. When she put the chakra expansion seal on me. It increased my reserves just a bit over the first night. The first time Kushina healed me with fur ball's chakra. It must've started mixing with the seal. Everyday for the first month of training she used that chakra to either heal me or give me more stamina to continue on. My body must've grown accustomed to it from always absorbing so much of it. The seal has been expanding my reserves much more at a quicker pace since the second month of training. So with it being mixed in with Kurama's chakra. I developed another type of chakra. I still have my regular chakra. But now I have Kurama's as well. My body automatically reproduces it now likes it's my own chakra. Are you following so far?" Sakura stopped to ask.

Jiraiya nodded. As confusing as it may sound. It does make sense somewhat.

"Ok, now I was able to access my second chakra on accident during one time when I was meditating. I felt so much power for a few seconds. So I started learning how to access it at will. Then with my perfert chakra control. I was able to combine it with my regular chakra. When activated you wouldn't believe how much power I have. But my problem is I only trained with it a couple times. I'm not used to it so I can't fully utilize its true potential. That's mainly what I'm going to spend this next month of training doing. Tsunade told me to just make sure I practice my strength technique and medical ninjutsu. Genma can't help cause he's the proctor of the finals. Kushina is probably going to teach me something." Sakura explained.

"I got a jutsu or two I can show you kid. By the way about your limit breaker can you only use taijutsu? Do you have a name for it?" The toad sage asked.

"Really? Thanks! Yes I can use ninjutsu, I only used taijutsu against Lee to put my taijutsu skills to the test. I call it second gear because all of my strength, speed, senses and skills go up another level. Imagine if I had full control over it? I could kick so much ass." Sakura smirked.

Jiraiya snorted. "Yeah I'm sure you could. Well let's get started on your fuinjutsu. Show me all that you know so far."

Sakura did as she was told. Jiraiya was stupefied by the level she was already at. "You're already an expert? Kami what the hell are you some sort of genius?! How did you even get this far in all of your abilities in just a couple months?" He cried out.

The pinkette smirked. "Kage bunshin you old pervert. It's cut down the time of training exponentially depending on how many clones you can use."

Jiraiya had a thoughtful look on his face. "How many can you make while still being able to fully function?" He asked.

"Well with my growing reserves I don't really know at the moment. The last time I did try tho was about 100 with my regular chakra. I didn't try it with my second gear yet. I've only did a few things with it." Sakura answered.

"Combined with that unrivaled growth rate and adaptability Kushina and Tsunade bragged about. I can see understand how you were able to improve so much." Jiraiya mused.

"Uh huh so mind teaching me those ninjutsu know? I plan on achieving the title of fuinjutsu master on my own if you don't mind." Sakura asked.

"Yeah yeah sure kid." Jiraiya voiced.

The pinkette took out a storage scroll where she kept some food in. She released it for Gamakichi. "Here's the snacks you asked me for earlier Gamakichi." Sakura said with a smile.

"Aw man Sakura you're the best!" Gamakichi yelled in happiness.

"I know and don't you forget it." She replied.

Jiraiya showed Sakura **Needle Jizo** and **Needle Hell. **Once Sakura got the hand signs down. It only took a couple tries until she got it down. Jiraiya made her practice it until he felt she was good enough with it.

After that was over with, Sakura learned about Mount Mybōoku. Jiraiya explained to her about the elder roads and the great toad sage. The pinkette was vastly interested. She decided to spend her next three weeks there training. Sakura wanted absolutely no disturbances during her training.

When she got home she saw Kushina was cooking dinner. The pinkette went to go hug her before she sat down at the table.

"So what did you do today?" Kushina asked as she sat down their plates.

"Well I finally met Jiraiya today. You and Tsuna were definitely right about him being a huge pervert." Sakura answered.

Kushina's eye twitched. "He didn't try to do anything perverted to you did he?" The red asked in a tone that promised nothing but pain if she didn't like what she heard.

"Nope I think he scared of what I would do to him if he tried. When I saw him he was peeping in the woman's hot spring giggling to himself. So I snuck up on him. I said 'what are you doing you perverted fool' in a Tsuna like tone. He jumped so hard. Plus I did warn him about peeping on me." The pinkette replied.

"Good so did he let you sign the contract?" Kushina asked.

"Yep and even taught me two jutsu's. By the way I'm going to be spending the next few weeks in mount myōboku." Sakura told her.

Kushina was surprised. "Oh? What made you decided to do that?"

"I want to work on my second gear in private. I know you don't want me to. But it's a good possibility when Orochimaru attacks. I'm going to end up fighting him whether you like it or not. I'm just as stubborn as you and Tsuna. So there's is not any changing my mind on this. I'm pretty confident I can handle Gaara if I can somehow survive against you when you're using Kurama's chakra cloak. Even if you do hold back." The rosette voiced.

The red head Uzumaki sighed. "Yes I know, there isn't any stopping you once you made up your mind. I don't know whether to be happy or mad that you got that from us. Well I guess it's a good thing I planned on teaching you the rasengan."

Sakura fell out of her chair. She quickly got up and slammed her hands on the table. "YOU WERE GOING TO TEACH ME THE RASENGAN?!" She screamed in shock.

Kushina laughed. "Calm down Saku, don't be so surprised. Why wouldn't I teach it to you dummy?"

"B-B-But it's an A-rank technique for a reason! Only you, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Minato-sama himself has only been able to achieve it. Tsunade or lord third can't do it. The only reason Kakashi can even do it is because of his sharingan. And you said so yourself that his is not as powerful as it could be because he didn't actually learn it himself." Sakura countered.

"True I did say that. However I have no doubt that you can master it. It really shouldn't be that hard for you considering the level of chakra control you have. Me, Jiraiya and Minato were also able to use our sage mode to make it more powerful. I believe that you could take it a step higher than that." Kushina calmly spoke.

"What do you mean?" The confused pinkette asked.

"Not many people know this but the rasengan is an incomplete technique. Minato created it based off a tailed beast ball. I've showed it to you before so you should remember it. Minato intended for the rasenagn to be the highest form of shape transformation. That's why only so few can actually do it. He wanted to add his own chakra element to it. But it was too difficult for him to do. I've attempted to but it seems like there's something I'm missing. Jiraiya failed at doing so as well. You on the other hand have a very very strong affinity for wind. To the point where you can use it to fly in the air at high speeds. With your perfect chakra control I believe you could achieve what the rest of us couldn't Saku-chan." Kushina explained.

Sakura took all of Kushina's words in to heart. She could tell that Kushina really believed that she could complete the jutsu. "D-do you really think that I can? Is it even my place to do so? I mean it's a fam-" She was cut off by a flick to the forehead by Kushina.

"Don't you dare say what you were about to say. You are family to us Sakura. Hell you...mean a lot more to me than you think." Kushina confessed with a small blush.

Sakura's heart skipped a beat, a mild blush appeared on her face. "I-I feel the same about you."

Kushina smiled. "Good so no more of this doubting stuff. I truly believe you can achieve it. So I'm going to teach you the rasengan before you leave."

The pinkette looked at her with determination shining from her eyes. "You got it Kushi-chan." She voiced confidently.

For the next 4 days, Sakura learned the rasengan. Just like Kushina said, due to her perfect chakra control. Learning the jutsu wasn't difficult at all for her. Sakura mastered the first two steps in a day. By the third day she had the rasengan down packed. The pinkette was giddy knowing the 4th hokage legendary technique. Tsunade gave her some medical techniques to study. Anko agreed to let her sign the snake contract once the exams were over with.

Kushina made Sakura several ninjutsu scrolls with her. She had one for every element. The pinkette also went to go buy her a new outfit for the finals.

The day before she left, an anbu told her that the hokage requested her presence. She was told to go to some meeting room in the hokage tower. When she got there, the pinkette was greeted with the site of jounin and chunin ninja. Sakura saw Tsunade, Kushina, Jiraiya, Genma and Shizune there. Along with the konoha 12 jounin sensei's plus the clan heads.

She knew exactly what this was about considering the amount of high ranking ninja in the room. So she kept a neutral face and spoke to the hokage in a similar tone. "You requested me hokage-sama?"

The old man stared at her with a welcoming expression. But Sakura knew better, this wasn't a welcoming situation to be in. "Yes I did Sakura. I wanted your opinion on a few things." He answered.

"About Orochimaru I'm assuming?" Sakura asked.

"Yes what made him tell you he was plotting an invansion?" The man questioned.

"He didn't, I just figured it out for myself. When I asked him about it he didn't confirm or deny it. Snake face intentions became real obvious when he told me to warn you to not cancel the exams." She answered.

"How were you able to escape?" Danzo asked curiously.

"I didn't really escape. He retreated, probably because he already wasted enough time fighting me to test me out." Sakura replied.

A genin fighting Orochimaru?!"

"Get real genin stop lying!"

"How dare you lie in front of hokage-sama!"

An outrage from jounin and chunin were heard. The only ones who didn't say anything were Kushina, Tsunade, Shizune, Anko, Ibiki, Jiraiya, Genma, Kotetsu, Izumo, The konoha 12 jounins sensei's, the hokage, the elders and the clan heads.

Just when Hiruzen was about to demand them to quiet down. A strong killing intent was felt throughout the room. He quickly found it was coming from Sakura.

The pinkette was annoyed at how quickly these idiots assumed she was lying. So to shut them up she released her killing intent. The effects were pleasing as she saw most of the chunin and jounin look like they were ready to shit themselves.

Sakura's glowing emerald eyes were narrowed as she looked at them. "I don't remember asking any of you if I care about your two cents. I was talking to lord hokage. If you have an issue you can fight me after this to see if I was lying. Otherwise shut the hell up!" She snapped at them.

Nobody said anything after that. Sakura sighed then looked back at the hokage. "Anyways yes he retreated. But I suspect he'll attack at some point during the finals. Considering how many important people will be there. For someone like Orochimaru, it would makes sense that he would want to put on a show somehow." She explained.

"Interesting and you said that you figured this out on your own?" Shikaku asked her.

"Yes I did Nara-sama. If we're being honest, I would be suspicious of suna as well. I know we are supposed to be allies. But allies don't send an unstable jinchuuriki to compete in the chunin exams without some sort of heads up. Unless said allies were plotting something against us." Sakura voiced.

Her words caught the attention of everybody in the room. "She's right sensei, they should've informed us ahead of time that they were sending an unstable jinchuuriki here. It's bad enough that they even considered sending him in the first place." Jiraiya spoke up.

"I know Jiraiya, the wind daimyo has been sending his mission request to us instead of Suna recently. I expect that didn't help out their economy at all." Hiruzen answered.

"Meaning they are teaming up with Orochimaru because of some sort of agreement between them." Sakura said.

Hiruzen sighed. "We'll we must be prepared for an invasion. Sakura I want to tell you to stay away from Orochimaru. But I can tell those words won't stop that from happening in the slightest. So if you do encounter him. Just be careful and try not to take him on alone if possible."

"I understand hokage-sama." Sakura said.

The meeting continued on planning how to act and protect the civilian if an invasion does take place.

After that was over, Sakura enjoyed the rest of the day with Kushina. They made sure she had a whole month's supply of food and necessities stored in a storage scroll.

The next day came, she said her goodbyes to Kushina, Anko, Genma and Tsunade before she summoned Gamakichi.

"Yo Sakura you ready to go?" Gamakichi asked.

"Yep I'm all packed up Kichi." Sakura told him.

"Alrighty." Gamakichi dispelled.

About 20 seconds later, Sakura disappeared then appeared in mount myōboku. When she took a look around her surroundings. The pinkette was amazed at the scenery.

"Wow this place is beautiful, it's like an amazonian jungle." Sakura spoke in a low tone.

"Yeah everyone has that sorta reaction the first time they come here from what pops told me." Gamakichi said.

Gamakichi showed Sakura around. The rosette was introduced to the toad oil fountain, the mountains and toad statues. She even saw the place where the great toad sage resides in.

"Hey Gamakichi who is this?" Gamatatsu asked.

Sakura looked to see an small yellow toad with orange markings. "Who is this Kichi?" She pointed to Gamatatsu.

"Bro did is Sakura I've been telling you about. Sakura this is my idiot brother Gamatatsu." Gamakichi introduced them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Gamatatsu." Sakura greeted.

"Same to you Sakura, say do you got any snacks?" Gamatatsu asked.

The rosette couldn't help but to sweat drop slightly. "You are definitely Kichi's brother. Yes I do have some snacks. I'll share with you guys once I eat later on." She told the yellow toad.

"Promise?" Gamatatsu wondered.

"Yes I promise, you can even ask Kichi if you don't believe me. I gave him snacks to first hour we met." Sakura assured him.

"She's right bro, now stop pestering her about it." Kichi said.

"Whoops sorry about that." Gamatatsu replied.

The tour continued from there with Gamatatsu tagging along. Eventually Sakura was led to meet the elder toads.

They lived in a small home, it was actually kinda cute to Sakura.

"Hey Lord Fukuasaku I brought our new summoner Sakura here!" Gamakichi called out.

Sakura was about to ask Gamakichi why didn't they just knock on the door. But she saw a small toad land in front of them outta nowhere. He had a white mohawk, busy eyebrows and a small goatee. He was wearing a high collar cape.

"So you're the new summoner I've been hearing about. I wonder what made that idiot Jiraiya-boy let you sign our contract? I don't mean any disrespect by that I'm just curious. This was not even seen by the great toad sage. I'm Fukusaku by the way. I live here with my wife Shima." Fukusaku said.

Sakura was a bit confused on how to respond to that. But she did it anyway. "Nice to meet you Fukusaku-sama. I'm Sakura Haruno the new toad summoner as you can see." The pinkette said.

"So what brings you here?" Fukusaku asked.

"Nothing really I just wanted to do some training away from Konoha on my own. I'm in the finals of the chunin exams. However there's a good chance an invasion will be happening by one of the traitors from the village. It's a good possibility I will encounter said traitor along with fighting a jinchuuriki. So let's just say I really need to make sure I'm ready to do my part." Sakura answered honestly.

Fukusaku was surprised by her response. "Wait there's someone planning an invasion against konoha? Who is it?" He questioned.

"It's Orochimaru." The pinkette replied.

The elder toad sighed. "I see, well I guess I'll leave you to that. You are welcomed to come by any time you please Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled. "That's Fuku-jiji!" She blurted out.

Fukusaku twitched at that name. While Gamakichi and Gamatatsu were shocked that Sakura would call him that. At the same time they were trying to hold back their laughter. Shima who had just walked out also heard Sakura's new nickname for her husband. She on the other hand didn't dare hold back her laughing.

"Ha Pa she got you there!" Shima laughed.

The elder male toad twitched again. "It's Fukusaku-sama you brat!" He yelled at Sakura.

Sakura just shrugged. "Hai hai Fuku-jiji." She said then she looked over to Shima. "It's a pleasure to meet you Lady Shima."

Shima just waved her off. "Just call em Ma dear. Anyways like my geezer husband said. Feel free to come by any time you please. I'll even make an extra plate of food for you." The female elder toad offered.

"Thank you I appreciate the offer." Sakura kindly replied. A deep feeling in gut told her to stay away from her cooking. "Actually now that I think about it. Do you mind if I stay here during my time here? I won't be that much of a bother since I'll be spending most of my time training." Sakura asked.

"Sure sure that's fine, right Pa?" Shima said.

Fukusaku rolled his eyes. "Yeah it's fine brat."

Sakura spent the whole first week on training her speed intensively. She knew she was fast. But she needed speed that would not only take Gaara by surprise. But high level ninja as well. Sakura knew that trying to achieve the hiraishin was not possible. First she didn't have the notes for it. Plus even if she did, she still would not be able to master the technique in a month. Not to say it was impossible, Sakura just didn't have the time to spend on it.

So she spent some time meditating trying to come up with a way to achieve ridiculous levels of speed. Sakura tried to visualize how the hiraishin appears in her mind. Obviously it was leagues above a shunshin. The same possibly could be said Kushina's top speed. Sakura considered Lee's speed when he uses the fifth gate. Although the pinkette knew that if that was the fastest he could go off of pure speed. She had a good chance of beating him if he gravity seal was fully released. So she tried to focus on remembering Kushina's speed.

A vision came into her head showing Kushina moving at full speed. Sakura remembered not even being able to blink before she disappeared then appeared right in front of her. Once she got that image. All she had to do was imagine the hiraishin's speed. She remembered hearing the stories of how fast the hiraishin is. Kushina explained it to her in a very detailed manner.

So she released all of her seals. She pushed her max speed to the limits. It was a joy to for her to know just how fast she was. After much trial and error during the first week. Sakura finally managed reach the level of speed she wanted. Turns out once she added some chakra to her speed. It made her travel at high speeds. Like she just disappeared in a blink of an eye. She didn't know if she could compare it to Kushina's max speed. But she felt like it was close enough.

During the week, she had also gotten to know Ma and Pa better. Shima liked Sakura's company. While Fukusaku was intrigued by how hard she will pushing herself.

The second week the pinkette decided it was time to train using her second gear. It really bugged her how weird it felt using it in battle. She couldn't shake off that her form was incomplete somehow. She knew she could push it further. But that was different than feeling it was incomplete.

Right now Sakura was meditating. Fukusaku decided her wanted to watch over her training, which she didn't mind one bit. It was an honor and privilege for her. Sakura knew that he had great wisdom that could be passed on to her.

In her meditative state, she focused her two chakra's. Once she the ratio was right between them. It allowed her to activate her second gear. The elder toad was surprised by the power Sakura was exuding.

'This young lady's power is something else. I've never met a child as young as her wield such power without being an jinchuuriki.' Fukusaku thought then he gasped once he saw what was she doing next. 'T-this is impossible! How could she be drawing on..' The toad trailed off.

The young pinkette was solely focused. Sakura could feel the incompleteness of her power. She searched deep and deep into her very being to find out what was being held back. Suddenly she felt an strange yet warm chakra entering her body. This took the pinkette by complete shock. She didn't know what was going on.

'Wait! Is this the nature energy I heard Shima-sama spoke about? How am I drawing on it? Hmm I wonder what would happened if I tried something?' Sakura thought to herself in amusement.

She continued to somehow draw on the nature energy while using still in her second gear form. The amount of energy she felt blooming inside of her was staggering. A small blue and green mixed fire was burning inside of her chest.

Fukasaku was truly amazed at how Sakura was gathering nature energy perfectly. He expected her to turn into stone by now. He wanted to stop her from continuing. But something just told him to just wait it out.

For the next 30mins, Sakura constantly drew in nature chakra. It wasn't much longer before she felt that the amount she gathered was enough. 'Now to combine this energy with my chakra!' Sakura thought to herself in full concentration.

She fused all three chakra inside of her body into one. Just like she does to activate her second gear. That's when fire in her chest increased tenfold. Sakura's eyes shot opened as her eyes were glowing green. It scared Fukusaku just a bit. An huge blue/green aura began covering her body completely.

Sakura was no longer in her mediating position. She was now standing in the air while her body was going through a massive change. The pinkette's arms and legs muscles were becoming firmer as well as longer. The same could be said for her abdominal area. Inside her body her lungs were expanding greatly resulting in increasing her stamina. The chakra made her all of her organs stronger than before. Her chakra coils were also expanding beyond the speed Kushina's seal could keep up. Resulting in it actually being destroyed. Sakura's waist grew even more along with her thighs. The same could be said for her breast since now they grew to be D-cups. The pinkette also grew in height by 4 inches making her 5'8. And last but not least, her hair was now longer than before. Going past her knees.

Once her transformation was finished, the chakra receded back into her body. Causing Sakura to let out a loud battle cry. The chakra she released was more than astonishing. It was unimaginable. Now in her second gear, Sakura had a mix color or blue and green aura around her. With her hair slightly glowing a brighter pink. Pupils also glowing. Instead of a little electricity going around her. She had a whole stream of electricity surrounding her aura.

Sakura looked at herself truly amazed. She closed and opened her palm trying to register what just happened. The pinkette just smiled widely and yelled. "YATTA! I DONT KNOW WHAT THE HELL I JUST DID BUT I FEEL ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! I FEEL FUCKING COMPLETE! IM READY TO GO TAKE ON THE WHOLE FUCKING WORLD!"

Fukusaku just stood there, staring in awe at the power he was looking at. He was definitely feeling sage chakra coming from her. But it was different from what he was used to sensing. He also couldn't believe just how much her body changed.

Sakura decided to test something. A second later, she soared at high speeds into the sky. Before she could never fly this fast. She traveled in the air all around the forest. She came back to where Fukusaku was standing. Once she landed, she released her second gear.

The pinkette smirked. "Well are you impressed or what?"

"Oh I'm far more than impressed Sakura-girl. How on earth did you obtain sage mode?" Fukusaku asked.

"Sage mode? Pfft there's no way I could achieve sage mode. At least not yet." Sakura dismisses.

However the old toad shook his head. "No I sensed sage chakra inside of you. You absorbed a massive amount of it somehow. Then managed to combine it along with the form you were using. Which resulted in your new look. It's not as potent as it was when you were using that second gear of yours. But I can still sense it from you. Just who are you Sakura?"

Sakura shrugged. "I don't know, just some civilian girl who parents died a few months ago. Don't really know any of her other family members. Who was also trained by 2 sannin and an legendary former anbu captain."

Fukusaku just shook his head. "Well it's clear that you aren't the average civilian girl. How are you going to fit your clothes now?"

"Don't worry Kushina taught me a seal that will change the size of my clothes if I outgrow them." She waved him off.

"Good that girl was always resourceful. However it's come to my attention that you need someone to help train you." Fukusaku voiced.

"Eh I kinda left Konoha for the month to train myself. But sensei would be nice." Sakura replied.

"Then I'm going to be your sensei from now on. However you need more than just a week to adjust to your new body. If you plan on fighting Orochimaru you need to have full control over yourself." Fukusaku lectured her.

Sakura groaned. But Fuku-jiji I don't have any more time than a week! It's no way I can miss the exams or not participate in the invasion!" She yelled.

The elder toad held her hand up. "Calm down Sakura-girl I know. That's why I'm going to take you somewhere that kept sacred to summons."

"And how will that help?" She asked.

"Time works different there. Basically it's another dimension where time goes by faster than it would in here." Fukusaku said.

"How fast you're talking?"

"A week in this dimension is a year and a half there. How it's supposed to work is that a day here is a year there. But 500 years ago something caused the amount of time passed to change. It's slowly going back to how it used to be. It will just take more time to get back to it's correct state. This is a place I never even told Jiraiya about. It's supposed to be kept secret unless an elder summon finds one person who thinks they can handle the gravity change. It's a 100x heavier than it is in this world." The elder toad explained.

Sakura was amazed and excited by this news. She had to catch herself from drooling. "Oh man I'm so about to become a bad ass shinobi. You're the best Fuku-jiji!" She told him.

Fukusaku smirked. "You're right about that."

"But how can you handle the gravity there?" Sakura wondered.

"If you train hard enough, you'll get used to the change in a week or two. By the way, Sakura-girl what kind of affinities do you have?" The old toad said.

"My main in wind then I also have water and earth." She answered.

"Hmm Interesting, well I'm going to help you learn how to combine your elements to form a new one. Yes I know it sounds like a bloodline. But it is possible to combine elements without a bloodline. It just takes a lot more work to do so. You having those three can make ice, wood and magnet releases." Fukasaku explained.

Sakura was starting to love her decision coming to mount myōboku. She would definitely surprise everybody at the exams when she returned.

Shima, Gamakichi, Gamatatsu, Gamabunta, Gamaken and Gamahiro all came to see what had happened. Everyone was bewildered by Sakura's new look.

Fukusaku explained to them what happened and where he planned on taking Sakura. Shima instantly included herself in his plans. The elder female toad reasoning was that she wanted to teach Sakura a few things herself while also seeing how strong she would become. Shima also told Fukusaku that they should let Sakura wield that sword that they have put up.

Fukusaku agreed seeing how it could benefit Sakura. Sakura asked what kind of sword we're they taking about.

"It's a sword that me and pa found a couple hundred years ago. It's a katana that produces lightning when you channel chakra through it. You can channel your chakra controlling how the lightning is used. For an example you could either choose to cover your blade in lightning or use it to attack or defend. With your perfect chakra control. I'm positive you'll be able to use it to it's potential." Shima explained.

"Yeah maybe but I'm not too sure with my chakra control being as shot as it is. My chakra coils were expanded making my chakra denser. Along with my reserves being at a level I never even fathom of achieving." Sakura voiced.

"By the time your done training. Your control will be just as good as before if not better. I will make sure you are adjusting fully to your body's adjustments Sakura-girl. I have to teach you about the nature energy you now possess. Also Shima didn't tell you that the sword is a soul binding sword. Meaning it will be bound to you if it sees you worthy enough to wield its full power. While now it can be used by others. It's lightning attacks are never at their full potential because the sword never found one to be worthy to completely wield it. If it finds you worthy. Then it is yours and can never be wielding by no one else. Anyone but you who touches it will be rejected. Even if it's somehow stolen from you. It will automatically go to your chakra signature if you haven't touched it in over 2 days. The metal is unbreakable as well." Fukusaku also explained.

Sakura grinned. "Well what the hell are we waiting for? Come on I'm trying to get started on my training as soon as possible." She said quickly.

"Hold on Sakura-chan, we also have to go by the library in mt myōboku. We have copies of some of the jutsu's belonging to each of the great nations. Most summon realms have the same. We also have scrolls of our own techniques along with lost scrolls we encountered during our lifetime. So be patient, we will start soon enough." Shima said.

The three went to the library first. Gathering everything that they found useful or interesting. Following that the group went to where the sword was being held.

Once Sakura saw it, she was in awe. The blade was a black blade with a gray hilt. She could tell it was very sharpe. It's aura was radiating to her. She felt as if it was calling to her.

Shima and Fukusaku noticed Sakura's trance. Both nodded to each other, confirming that Sakura could be the one.

Sakura walked to the blade. Slowly reaching out for it. When she touched it, her chakra instantly was sent through it. The blade was glowing blue for 10 seconds before it died down. Suddenly Sakura felt a burning sensation on her right arm. It was only there for 5 seconds. When she looked at it. A black kanji standing for lightning was tattooed in black on her arm. She really didn't want tattoo's yet. But figured it was nothing she could do about it now.

"Well that definitely settles it. Sakura-chan was chosen after all." Shima said in amusement.

The pinkette was admiring the power she felt coursing in her new sword. She knew that this was a powerful weapon. Most would kill to have something like this.

"I think I'll name you Raiko. How does that sound?" Sakura asked the sword.

Raiko glowed giving her a warm feeling. She smiled. "So Raiko is it then."

After that happened, the trio made their way back home. Once there, Fukusaku took out a scroll. He laid it out on the ground. Once Sakura had everything she needed. Fukusaku instructed her and Shima to put their hands onto the scroll. Once they did, Fukusaku bit his thumb. Drawing some blood and slammed it on the seal on the scroll. A second later, the group of 3 was transported from mt myōboku to a whole different dimension.

Sakura was forced onto the ground. Forcing her chakra to help her try to stand up. Fukusaku and Shima were both standing perfectly fine. Sakura turned her head slightly to see that the area they were in was mostly a white space sorta. It was a small castle in the middle of it. With two hours glasses on the side of it.

"Welcome to the time chamber Sakura-girl." Fukusaku introduced.

"This g-gravity is i-insane!" She stammered.

"You'll adjust to it eventually. The more you move, the quicker your body adjusts. If you train, it'll be like just like your gravity seal. For now just use your chakra to move the best you can. It'll protect your spine from any damage until your body is used to the gravity here." The elder male toad said.

Sakura did as she was told. She used her chakra to make her body move. It was hard, but doable.

This was the beginning to Sakura first visit to true hell. For a year and a half, she would be put through some intense trials.

The first two weeks were absolute hell on her improved body. While it was much stronger than before. She still had trouble adjusting to it all. Although she did discover some interesting things. First is that her sense of smell improved. Fukusaku told her that her nose was as strong as a ninken's. Second was her vision also improved. She had perfect vision but if Sakura focused she can increase the amount of distance she can see. To her, she guessed this is how the byakugan feels somewhat. Obviously she couldn't see tenketsu in a person's body. However the long range sight will definitely come in handy. It made her wonder if she could possibly see in the dark if she tried.

After a gruesome two weeks, her body was finally adjusted to the gravity of the time chamber. The pinkette imagined how fast she must be now if she can run normally in 100x normal gravity. She learned from Shima that most people would be crushed by the weight. To the point where even if they used their chakra. They still could not move. Sakura informed that she was a different case from the rest. Although Sakura had a feeling that Kushina could withstand this as well if she could. She wasn't too sure about Tsunade though.

Fukusaku gave her a scroll to learn how to wield dual swords. For 3 months, Sakura practiced her kenjutsu, taijutsu, chakra control and speed. She wanted to reinforce her gravity seal but Fukusaku told her to wait until he gives her to ok to do so. He didn't want to risk adding even more pressure into Sakura yet.

Sakura to her surprise didn't need to draw on her anger anymore to use her raw strength. Before she would always think of something to make her angry so she could tap into her raw strength. She made sure that her opponents wouldn't be able to tell that she was angry. Always masking her facial expressions. Now she no longer needed to do that. She could cause massive damage on her own at will. With her strength technique it only made her strength that more devastating. The pinkette had to work hard to control her strength.

Shima showed her many chakra control exercises. One was Sakura having to keep Shima's body balanced on her one of her fingers only using her chakra. If that wasn't strenuous enough. Fukusaku joined in sometimes and made her balance him on her other finger using her opposite hand.

Shima told her that when Sakura's training was over with. Her chakra control percentile will be a 98th percentile.

Sakura also studied the fuinjutsu books and notes that she had. Finally making herself a full fledge seal master. She practiced and mastered her medical skills. Sakura learned everything she needed to know about the human body.

The pinkette's accuracy with her kunai and shuriken improved. She didn't know if it was good as Tenten's or Anko's. But she knew it was way better than before.

Fukusaku and Shima taught Sakura how to access the nature chakra inside of her to apply it to her attacks. Like her rasengan for an example. She could add sage chakra to her rasengan increasing the damage significantly.

After 6 months of learning that much. Fukusaku decided it was time for train her affinities. Sakura did as she was told but didn't understand how she was going to practice her water affinity.

Fukusaku told her to create a huge crater while he takes care of the water. Once that was done, Fukusaku informed her that it was water in the air as well.

Sakura spent months training her affinities, while learning ninjutsu's for her elements. It was the 9th month where she made a breakthrough and was able to create ice on accident. Fukusaku and Shima trained her into the ground even more after that. It took months to learn. But Sakura had mastered her affinities so well to the point where she could combine them. Now she could use ice and wood release. Her wood release wasn't nowhere near the first hokage's. However it would take more time before she utilize it to that level. She could use magnet release somewhat. But that was more difficult to use than the other two.

Last but not least, her second gear was also trained heavily. Now she could stay in that form for long periods of time while wasting little chakra. No longer did she need to spend time building up chakra to access the form. Sakura could access it in seconds now. Although she could still draw the transformation out to show off.

With her speed, she was able to come up with a technique called flash step. It allows her to travel at uncharted territory of speed. Fukasaku told her, that her technique was very similar to the hiraishin. He informed her that from what he saw. Sakura could travel so fast that she could teleport. Once she learned that, she spent weeks trying to perfect her flash step. When it was all said and done. Said girl could basically teleport both short and long distances. She just had to have the image in her head of where she wanted to go.

The last two month of training, she went over everything single thing she's learned. Sakura wanted all of her skills perfected to the best it could be. She was amazed that she could access sage mode like Kushina could. She was amazed at how far she's come.

It was finally time to go back to their world. When they arrived there, Sakura learned that it was actually the day of the exams. According to Gamakichi, she was late and needed to hurry. Sakura was filled with pure excitement. Today the world would know of her power. She would surprise all of her family and friends.

The pinkette quickly picked out the outfit she bought for this day. Some size adjustments were made as well.

Once she was ready Sakura stood proud in front of her masters. Almost everybody came to see her off.

"Your training is done Sakura-girl. I am proud of how far you came." Fukusaku commended

Sakura picked up the elder toad to give him a tight hug to her chest. "Thanks Fuku-jiji! You're the best elder summon ever along with Ma." She said in happiness.

Fukusaku didn't mind the compliment but he didn't know how much longer he could fight off the nosebleed coming his way. "O-Oi, Oi, Oi, Oi let me go brat! He yelled in desperation.

Sakura laughed and did as she was told.

Fukusaku glared at her slightly before breaking out into a smirk. "You're right about us being the best elder summons." He said.

"Yo Sakura when are you gonna summon me again?" Kichi asked.

"Soon Kichi, right after the invasion if it actually happens. I don't want to risk you getting hurt by coming now." Sakura replied then looked at Gamabunta.

"Boss be prepared to be summoned by either me, Kushina or Jiraiya. Orochimaru will most likely involve his snake summons in the battle or Gaara might go berserk and release Shukaku." She told him.

"Oi brat why do I have to fight a tailed beast again?! It's already bad enough Minato made me go up against the damn nine tails all those years ago." Gamabunta complained.

The pinkette rolled her eyes. "Oh please boss, it's not like I expect you to win against Shukaku. But I know you can hold your own for a few minutes until he's back in the seal. Plus you even told me yourself that you didn't have to fight Kurama for no more than maybe 3mins. You survived that so I know you will survive this."

Gamabunta just grumbled to himself while nodding.

"To the rest of you, I'll be back eventually, you guys make things interesting. If the invasion doesn't happened I'll summon Gamakichi and tell him to inform you all about it." Sakura said to the rest of the roads.

"Alright Sakura I'm gonna go to konoha. So I can reverse summon you there." Shima then disappeared into smoke.

"Remember Sakura-girl, you can tell people about the time chamber. But unless it's Kushina, tell everyone else it's forbidden for them to use because they won't survive the massive strain on their bodies for two weeks. You were the exception due to your abilities. We aren't even all that sure about Kushina. I know she has the willpower to survive almost anything thrown her way. But the pressure forced onto your body in that dimension very difficult to overcome. Like I said you were the exception." Fukusaku reminded her.

Sakura gave him a thumbs up with a smile. "Hai hai Fuku-jiji." Then she disappeared into smoke.

The elder toad just sighed. "That girl is something else alright. I'm still amazed that she's an actual regular civilian child. She's about to become a legend at a very young age."

Sakura appeared back in Konoha. When she looked around, she quickly realized she was at the entrance to the forest of death. Suddenly the pinkette picked up multiple foreign chakra signatures.

"Sakura-chan do you feel that?" Shima called out to her.

Said girl looked down to Shima then nodded. "Yeah I sense a lot of foreign chakra signatures. A good portion of them it's at the konoha stadium. However I can sense a decent amount in certain areas of inside and outside of the village."

"Which means you were right about the invasion. That's some nice intuition you got there Sakura. You've made me and pa proud of you. Go put on a nice show for us." Shima told her.

"Thank you Shima-sensei, I won't let you down." Sakura spoke confidently to her.

The elder female toad nodded with a smile before she dispelled back to mt myōboku.

Sakura took a deep breath. "Alright time to put on a show." She focused on a certain chakra signature then used flash step to travel to their location.


End file.
